


The Rain and the Waves

by Thelizzardwizzard



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: F/M, yeah i dont know what this is lmao
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-07
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2018-09-15 14:02:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 25
Words: 59,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9238091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thelizzardwizzard/pseuds/Thelizzardwizzard
Summary: Momi is a study-hard kid in college who has it a bit rough. Her parents won't let her out of the house (Save for school) and she doesn't get to talk to anyone. With no friends, no pokemon, and no real reason for going on, Momi sneaks out and ends up in a world she could have never imagined.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Momi took a deep breath. She could taste the salt in the air. She craved to go outside and let the sand come in between her toes. She could only imagine the cooling sensation of the water washing on the shore and running across her feet. She wanted nothing more than to walk down the shore like they did in movies and collect shells. Maybe she could give a shell to one of her loved ones.

If she had any loved ones.

That was a mean thought, and she scolded herself for it. Her parents loved her. Just not enough to let her go. What was the point of buying a house on a beach if she was never allowed to go explore it? When Momi wasn’t at school, she was in her room. Her parent’s Machoke made sure of it.

Study, eat, study, sleep. Every day.

She stood at her desk, leaning over it and sticking her face out the window. The sun washed over her skin and brought a smile to her face. A somewhat rare occurrence these days. Although, she heard footsteps coming up the stairs and towards her bedroom.

She quickly slammed the window shut and put flower pots on the window sill to conceal the lock she had broken days ago. She returned to the comfy seat at her desk and put her hands at the keyboard of her laptop. She closed a few windows and opened a few different ones to make it appear like she was studying.

She really should be studying. In a few days, she had an extremely crucial exam and for the first time in a while, she was scared she may not pass. Momi was always one who tended to get good grades. When she was younger, she always did good in school without even having to try. To be honest, she was always pleased by the looks of jealousy in other kid’s faces when she got back a perfect score and they didn’t.

But Momi knew that was also a mean thought. She wished she could calm her competitive tendencies sometimes. But now, as she had gotten older, things were much harder. She’d made it through high school with perfect scores, top of her class. College was another beast, and the stress was starting to tear her apart. She could feel her hands shake as she wrote essays, her stomach churning as she thought about failure.

Would her parents even care about her if she failed?

Momi was torn from her thoughts, thankfully, as the door opened without a warning knock. Her mother stood before her, dressed in a silky red flowered dress that stopped at her knees. Over her mother’s shoulder was a rather expensive looking bag. Momi blinked in confusion and looked to her mother for an explanation. It wasn’t like her to get this dressed up.

“Me and your father are going out for a little bit. We’re going to be stopping in Iki town, then making our way to Hau’oli to do some shopping and eat together. You are not to leave the house, you understand, yes?”

Momi slowly gave a nod as her mother spoke in a monotonous voice. On the bright side, Momi knew she was going to get free realm of the house. Although, as usual, that was the only thing she had realm of. If only she’d take that damn Machoke with her, Momi wouldn’t mind sneaking out for a bit. Not that she was the rebellious type, but lately the crave for change was gnawing at her worse than ever.

Her mother stepped over and took Momi’s face in her hands, gently. She stroked a thumb down the side of Momi’s face lovingly. Momi gave a small, half-hearted smile. Her mother leaned down and gave Momi a gentle kiss on the forehead before turning to leave. She stopped at the door, turning to look at her daughter.

“I love you, Momi.” She smiled. Momi nodded, and mumbled a small ‘I love you’ back before turning in her seat. She’d been giving her parents the cold shoulder for a while now, and she knew they were noticing. It only tended to make her mother sad.. Which is what she wanted. As for her father, he reacted much differently. Momi took notice that he had not come to say goodbye to her.

Good.

She looked back at her laptop, and pulled up a page on Corsola. She had an essay due on the restoration effort of the Corsola species. According to the page, their population has gone down significantly with the rise of Toxapex population. Apparently, the Aether Foundation was putting in efforts to bring back a rise in Corsola and is doing well so far. Momi recalled hearing about the Aether foundation a few times around school. 

Momi continued reading a bit about Corsola, until she heard the slam of the door downstairs. Momi turned her head and looked in the direction of her door. Her heart began pounding. 

She wanted to try and get past the Machoke guarding her house. Maybe if she was quiet enough, the dumb thing wouldn’t realize she had left. Then she turned her head and looked at her window. She opened it back up after removing the flower pots obscuring the broken lock, and looked down. She could climb out, theoretically. But that is also to say that she could fall and break her neck. The latter was more likely, and Momi had never been known as a risk taker. Ever. She looked back to her door. She could practically hear her heartbeat in her ears. Why was she so determined on leaving the house? It’s not like this was a recent thing. Her parents hardly let her out of the house her entire life. Her mother insisted that going outside was dangerous. That wild pokemon would jump out at you any second.

In that case, Momi remembered asking for her own pokemon. Kahuna Hala in Iki town was always overjoyed to give a new trainer a pokemon, so why couldn’t she get one to train?

She received a harsh scolding that day for even thinking about it.

If she got a pokemon from Kahuna Hala, the pokemon could turn and hurt her, and her mother would not have that happening.

Her entire life was spent in front of this laptop. Which, she couldn’t even escape there. Her mother had it covered with software denying her access to almost anything not school related. Momi wasn’t even allowed to have a real phone. She glanced at the piece of garbage technology on her desk. It could only call her mom and her dad, and 911. Nothing else. It was a simple flip phone, too. 

She wanted to hurl it at the wall. 

She gently closed her laptop and slid some shoes on. Climbing out the window was not going to be an option. She shuddered at the thought. She put the window back into place, and slowly slid out her door. She glanced down the stairs. The Machoke was obviously alerted by the sound of her door opening. She opened the bathroom door, and turned the faucet on so it wouldn’t be suspicious. After a moment, Momi turned it off.

The machoke left the bottom of the stairs, probably to patrol the rest of the house. She could see the front door down the steps. As she descended down the stairs, she kept an eye out for the fighting type patrolling her home. The front door was actually not the best idea. It creaked rather loudly, and she knew that the Machoke would definitely hear it. Once down the steps, she dashed for the couch, hiding behind it. 

The Machoke’s heavy steps returned to the room, and then left again. It was pretty much just circling the house, so if she could stay behind it enough to stay out of it’s sight, but not let it catch up on her… She could make it to the back door in the kitchen. She waited, holding her breath.   
Once it was far away enough, she carefully stalked her way into the kitchen and gently pried open the back door. She stepped outside and quietly closed it back, before running for it. The beach. It was so close! Momi grinned, almost tripping as she ran. 

She skidded to a stop as her shoes sank in the sand. She slid, falling on her butt. She yelled out in surprise, slowly getting back to her feet. She kicked off her shoes.

This is what she wanted. This is all she wanted.

The sand found it’s way in between her toes as she walked, and to Momi, it was absolutely delightful. The tide rose up to the sand, washing over her feet. She giggled as the cold water shocked her a little. 

She began walking down the shore, stuffing as many shells into her pocket as she could. Pelippers flew above, sounding off every so often. She watched them soar, a little jealous. 

She heard rustling in the grass behind her. She turned quickly, eyes widened. She had to admit that now she was pretty scared. She watched the grass as it shook a bit… a tiny Pikipek leaping from it and onto the ground with a gleeful chirp. 

Momi smiled. She dared to step up to it, and kneeled down. She reached a hand to it, and it jumped back. It stared at her for a moment before hopping closer. It rubbed its face against her hand.

How could her parents be keeping her from all of this? 

Soon, the tiny pokemon retreated to its spot among the grass and left Momi to herself. She sat in the sand, far enough to be safe from the water, and watched the waves. She knew she wasn’t going to be here for long, and she wanted to enjoy every second of it. She pulled the shells out of her pockets and laid them out in the sand to inspect them further. 

So many different shapes, sizes and colors.. Purples, pinks, blues, but a majority of white colored ones. Her pockets were now full of sand though. She made a mental note to change clothes when she got home so she didn’t alert her parents to her little outing.

Her parents.

They’d kill her if they ever found out about this. She clutched her chest, gritting her teeth for a moment as fear washed over her body. She hadn’t thought about the possible consequences of this. Her parents could be home any time. Well, not really. They were going to two different places that were relatively far from each other. It’d be a while. But what if they changed their minds? What if they came home now? There were so many ways all of this could go wrong!

But Momi couldn’t bring herself to leave. She couldn’t stop enjoying this. Not yet. She wanted to breathe in this fresh seaside air a little longer. She wanted to watch the sunset, She wanted to see the sky meld together in a blur of colors she craved.

What a gorgeous red was setting upon the sky.. She felt like she’d never seen anything like it before.

She took a hand full of sand and let it slip through her fingers back to the ground. She tried to push all of her anxieties to the back of her mind, but it wasn’t working. She wanted to enjoy this, damnit! She didn’t want to spend the only time she’d have outside thinking about how it could go wrong! If she was going to be here, she wanted to be happy!

Momi felt hot tears stinging at her eyes, but she shook her head. She wasn’t going to freak out. She wasn’t going to cry. She was going to burn the image of the sunset in her mind for later. She stared at the colors, of course not staring at the sun, storing away a mental photo for herself. 

Time came that she decided she needed to return home. She got to her feet, and slowly tore herself away from the small shred of paradise she had found outside her home.

Once back at the house, she slowly glanced inside the window to see if the Machoke was in the kitchen. It was just leaving. Perfect. She carefully slipped inside, and followed behind the Machoke until she got to the stairs. She waited for it to be far away enough that she could quietly step up them. 

She sighed in relief as she made it back into her room. She quickly stripped herself of her sandy clothes and replaced them with new ones. She walked over to her small trash can, shook her clothes of the sand, and tossed them in the hamper. To ensure her victory over her parents, she changed out the trash bag.

She lied down on her bed, smiling. She stared up at the ceiling for what felt like hours, thinking over what she had seen. She felt so giddy now, having gotten away with her little outing.

Maybe she could… do it again?


	2. Chapter 2

Momi’s eyes snapped open with another new day. She jumped in the shower. The only thing on her mind was the much cooler water of the ocean. She had to go out again today. That was final. She slid out of the shower and into her new clothes before almost tripping down the stairs on her way to the kitchen.

 

Her mother had already prepared for her a breakfast, to which she quickly scarfed down. Her mother eyed her curiously. She gave an innocent smile.

 

“Going back to studying.” Momi said, hurrying up the stairs.   
  
“I want you to do the dishes later!” Her mother called up the stairs. “Don’t forget!”

  


Momi grimaced. The dishes were her most hated chore. She'd prefer to do anything but that, even if it meant doing everyone’s laundry. But Momi didn't really care today. Both of her parents had to go to work, and Momi was thrilled to bits about it. She was going to sneak out again, and get to see the beach. Maybe she'd see the same Pikipek who'd been there before? That would be amazing.

  


The thought of defying her parents never pleased her. She was always one to follow order and obey. Rules were in place for a reason, and who was she to decide she was better than them? And with breaking rules came punishment. Yes, Momi much preferred the secure route of honesty and rule following.

  


But enough was enough. She'd allow herself this. Just this. She wanted to escape to her sliver of paradise again. Not only did she want to, she _needed_ to. And she'd already made it past the machine once, she knew she could do it again.

  


Truth be told, her parents couldn't technically keep her cooped up like this. Momi was an adult in the eyes of the law, and her parents had no real control over her.

 

And yet she still found it hard to tell them she wanted to leave, or yell at them, or anything… especially with the way her dad reacts. She was a prisoner of her own home, and of her own accord. She didn't have the heart to break free of this place. And if she did? Where would she go? She had no friends. Her other family didn't live on Alola. And even then, they wouldn't be much help.

 

Back to business. Momi turned her attention to the shells she had taken from the beach. She'd had them stored in a small lockbox she'd gotten as a child. One thing she kept hidden from her parents all these years.

 

She did not plan on studying today. Now it was just a waiting game to see how long it took her parents to leave for work. They typically left around ten, and came back around seven. They went to work every day except Sunday. Momi wasn’t even really sure where her parents worked, and when she asked, they were just vague.

 

‘We help pokemon.’ Her mother had once told her.

 

‘We search for information.’ She recalled her father’s foods.

 

‘We strive for the future.’ She’d heard that from the both of them.

 

She tried not to think about it too much. Wondering about it would only lead to nothing. She wasn’t going to get a better answer out of her parents. Why bother herself with it? Thankfully, Momi’s thoughts were stopped by her mother yelling goodbye, and the door shutting downstairs.   
  
Momi came back out of her room, to see if her father had left. Strolling through the living room, she craned her neck to see if he was on the couch. No dad there. Kitchen? No dad. Dining Room. Dad.   
  
He was sitting at the far end of the table, a newspaper in hand. With his other, he picked up a bland white mug and raised it to his moustached lips. He glanced at his daughter, mumbling a greeting before continuing reading his paper. Momi restrained herself from sighing or anything, and left the dining room. She sat on the couch and looked out the window. A Pikipek hopped around happily in the grass. Momi smiled, recalling the Pikipek she’d met at the beach. It could very well have been the same one. She really hoped so.

 

The family’s machoke walked into the room. It glanced at Momi and made a small sound of it’s own greeting before it continued its patrol of the house. Momi shot it a bit of a glare as it left, her body filling with sudden anger at the creature’s existence. It had become her main obstacle keeping her from the outside world.

 

Her father had emerged from the dining room, and grabbed his keys off of a small ring in the wall next to the door.  
  
“Bye Momi.” He said before quickly walking out and slamming the door. He’d left his mug in the dining room. With a sigh, Momi forced herself up and to the dining room to retrieve it and bring it to the kitchen. He’d left the newspaper as well. Instead, Momi decided to sit down and browse through the newspaper’s pages. One article caught her eye.

 

Team Skull Strikes Again 

 

By now, most people in Alola have heard of the infamous Team Skull. What some people don’t know, however, is that they’ve begun their move to other islands. The start of their dastardly operation began with the takeover of Po Town, continued with the terrorization of Ula Ula Island, and is now proceeding to Melemele Island.

 

On Thursday Night a young preschooler boy was walking home from Mahalo trail. The child had heard the tales of Tapu Koko, and wished to try and visit the Island’s deity. Sadly, the child met the members of Team Skull instead.

 

They took the pokemon belonging to the boy, a rather small Pikipek. Efforts are being made to retrieve the pokemon, but hopes are not high for this one. Not many people will dare step into Po Town, the place that the Pikipek will have most likely been taken to.

 

How far will these criminals go? When will they stop? What can we do to stop them? Most people can defend themselves from these criminals, but a poor defenseless child was subjected to their terror. When do we draw the line?

 

  


Momi glanced at the picture that accompanied the article. A shabby dressed teen stood, throwing his hands in stupid signs at a camera as though he had been excited for the photo. Around his neck was a large amulet with an S on it, presumably standing for Skull. He didn’t look too intimidating, just a regular guy who happened to think he was dangerous. Momi chuckled a little bit. But in reality, she knew that she would probably lose it if she came in contact with one of these losers… She wouldn’t know what to do. She’d chicken out.

 

Momi didn’t plan on wasting any more time reading about these idiots. She got to her feet, raced the mug to the kitchen and left it in the sink, before watching for the Machoke. Sounded like he was just making it to the living room. Momi hastily slipped out the door and made a dash for the beach.

 

At the last second, she tripped. But Momi was met with sand as she fell to the ground, rolling in an effort to lessen the impact. She giggled and sat back up and shook herself off.

 

“You see the article?” A voice spoke. Momi squeaked in surprise, looking around. People were coming onto the beach. She quickly rolled behind a large boulder. Her heart pounded in her ears. Her body felt weak. She tried to calm herself, as her breathing became kind of ragged. Who was it? She’d caught a glimpse of pink hair.

 

She carefully peeked from the side of the boulder. Two people stood on the beach, watching the tide rise and fall close to their feet. They both wore the same exact outfit-- the same one she’d seen on the newspaper just minutes ago. A black tank top, a strange beanie, a necklace with an S, and strangely colored hair. The boy had bright blue hair, and the girl had hot pink. Momi wouldn’t lie. She was jealous.

 

“Yeah. I looked dope, right?” The boy giggled. The girl laughed along, and nodded.

 

“You were ready for that photo, huh?” She asked, placing her hands on her hips.   
  
“Of course! Gotta represent, ya know?” He stuck his hands in his pockets.

 

She rolled her eyes, and the two continued with idle chatter. They had to be Team Skull members. And as predicted, Momi was chickening out. She was in front of two criminals, and that was the guy who’d stolen that poor kid’s Pikipek… Awful. Momi desperately wished she could do something, but she had not the means nor the willpower.

 

She carefully and quietly treaded through the sand, and through the grass towards her house. The two Skull members seemed rather caught up in their conversation with each other, so Momi was rather confident that she could get away without being noticed. Her heart pounded a million beats a minute though, and she could feel sweat drip down her face. She was feeling sick to her stomach. The fear from this entire situation was eating at her already. Once she’d gotten far away enough from the two, she broke into a run.

 

She didn’t even pay attention to whether or not the Machoke was in the kitchen before she slid through the back door. She quietly made her way up her stairs, into her room, and onto her bed. She pulled her blankets over her head and rested her face in her pillow.

 

She listened to her heart beat. She waited for it to slow down, and even worried that it never would. But eventually, her heart stopped racing and her muscles relaxed a bit.

 

Team Skull.. Huh..?

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whats up guys i'm bad at writing

Chapter 3

 

Her next few days proceeded the same. She snuck out, spent her day exploring the outside of her home and around the beach, and went home. Of course, during the weekdays she went to school, but she always got home before her parents. She always had time to go to the beach. She'd met a few other Pokémon, but she'd had no more encounters with Team Skull. 

She'd completely abandoned studying. She'd done awfully on some homework, but her essay on Corsola saved her grade. But… next was her exam. Her college was a small community college tucked away in the Hau’oli shopping district. It was easy to miss and had an overly complicated path to it. One had to proceed through several gated areas, where there was a chance of a pokemon attacking. Thankfully, there were police officers always stationed nearby in case of such an accident.

Momi made her way through the gates and up to the school. She stopped in front. A few other people walked inside, but she stood there. She felt frozen. She hadn’t studied like she should have. She was praying that maybe the amount she’d listened in class could get her a passing grade. Why did she do this? Why had she let herself become so obsessed with some stupid sand? She was stupid. Her parents were going to be so mad, and rightly so. She was a failure. She couldn’t focus long enough to study for a stupid exam. And she wouldn’t pass. She knew it. Still, she knew that she had no choice but to make her way inside. 

She took a deep breath, but it didn’t help her calm. Her hands shook, and she could feel herself breaking apart from the inside out. Her mind was racing. Her heartbeat pounded heavily, her palms became sweaty with the fear of failure. She knew it almost immediately, she was going to throw up. She raced to a nearby trash can and used one hand to pin her hair up as she retched. Her throat burned and tears streamed down her face. She’d messed up, and now she had no way of fixing it. She was already breaking down and she hadn’t even started the test yet. Momi closed her eyes. She was pathetic. 

Once her stomach had been emptied of whatever contents it may have had, she sprinted to a bathroom inside to clean herself up. She stared in the mirror. Her skin was pale. It made her feel strange. Most people around Alola were a beautiful tan, but her family was from Unova. A good portion of the family had moved to Alola, and Momi’s parents were among those. But since Momi spent her time inside, she’d never gained an Alolan tan like she’d prefer.

Since throwing up, her skin had become paler than usual, and she looked awful. She knew as soon as she walked into that room, people were gonna look at her like she was crazy. She ran a hand through her hair. Her hair stopped at her shoulders, and was perfectly straight. No waves or curves. It was a nice earthy shade of brown, matching her brown eyes as well. She felt a little upset. She wouldn’t look so bad if it weren’t for the fact that she’d just thrown up. But Momi knew she had much more important things to worry about than her appearance.

That exam.

She’d spent the last few seconds focusing on her appearance so that maybe she could ease her mind with another topic… if only to be relieved of the weight of her problem for a moment. It hadn’t worked as well as she wanted. 

She continued on her way to the classroom, keeping her head down. She didn’t want to look at anybody, or speak to anybody. Not that many people would try to speak to her. No one ever did. She was pretty sure the professors had caught onto her parent’s craziness, but she was never asked about it. No one cared. Momi supposed things were easier that way. She’d never really thought of her parents as bad until lately. Of course she’d always disliked her father somewhat. He… obviously struggled with anger. But she’d always loved her mother. 

Things were changing for her. She couldn’t stand the way they looked down on her. They only cared about the grade she got. Like Momi was a number. Momi didn’t want to be a number, she wanted more than that. She wanted her mother to tell her that she loves her, and mean it. That love came only with success. With failure, that love would be stripped from Momi.

And that terrified her.

She wanted to not care. She wanted to throw her parents out of her mind. She didn’t need their love, she was a grown adult. Yet she craved their approval. She needed it, and she was pretty sure that she couldn’t live without it.

She took her seat amongst the other students, most of whom seemed as frazzled as her. She didn’t speak to anyone. She stared down at her desk and mulled around in her thoughts as she waited on the exam to begin.

And so it did. 

And it was harder than Momi imagined. She eventually began putting down answers. Every part of her felt weak. She consistently had to wipe tears from her eyes, tears that threatened to roll down her face and onto her paper. She was sure the other students noticed her distress. But she didn’t look up. She didn’t look at anyone. Once she’d finished, she quickly turned in the paper and sat back at her seat. She waited. She was the first to finish, in her haste. She didn’t know any of the material, it didn’t matter how long she stared at that sheet of paper, it wasn’t going to make her grade any better. The professor began grading it at his seat, since he had the time. 

And she watched. She grit her teeth, and winced every time she saw him mark something. 

At the end of the class, he’d had every paper graded. Once he’d put them in his computer, he handed back the papers. Momi didn’t look at hers. She put it at her side, and rushed out of the room. She broke into a run down the hall, almost hitting several people as she busted out the door and made it back towards home. Her parents wouldn’t be home. She could.. She could hide this from them. They’d never know. They had known before she had an upcoming exam, but her mother probably forgot! And if she had forgotten, her father surely had too. This was okay. Her grade may fall, but things would be okay, right?

Once inside the safety of her own home, she slowly rose the paper to her eyes. 

And there it was, her death sentence written in bright red pen.

36/100.

So, out of a hundred questions, she’d only gotten thirty six answers correct. And if that wasn’t enough..

Momi’s eyes widened, her breath stopping as she noticed the two standing before her. Her parents. Her father stood with his arms crossed, his eyes trained on his daughter. Her mother gave a bit of a smile, but it wasn’t all too sincere.

“Is that your exam?” Her mother reached to take the paper, but Momi quickly held it away.

“No.” She said, without thinking. What then? What was she going to tell them this was? Idiot. 

Her father snatched it from her hands, and took a look with it. She watched, and it seemed reality slowed down as Momi saw her father’s face go from one of indifference to one of… anger. His arm strongly grasped Momi’s, pulling her closer. He brought his face down to be closer to her. He was much taller than she was.

“Explain this, Momi! This grade is unacceptable. What’s wrong with you? Didn’t you study? I didn’t think you were this stupid!” He threw the paper to the side. Momi could only stutter. She didn’t know what to say, and even if she did, she didn’t want to chance angering him even farther. This is the truth behind her father. This was his true nature. On the outside, to most people, he always appeared so calm. So unassuming. But this was him. And Momi decided it now.

She hated him. 

It seemed that as soon as she’d decided this, she felt a burning pain on her cheek. She was knocked backwards, falling off of her feet promptly after her father had sent his fist into the side of her face. She yelped in pain, tears burning her eyelids as she held a hand to the injured area. She looked around the room for her mother, who was now absent from the scene. 

Every time. She just left. She didn’t stand up for her daughter. She just left to do something else. 

Her father picked her up by her hair, bringing her back up to her feet. 

“Pathetic.” He hissed. He’d pushed her against the front door, and his hand found it’s way to her throat. In only a moment, he was cutting off her air ways as he screamed at her.

“This is unacceptable, you piece of shit! We have so graciously let you stay under this roof, we’ve fed you, we’ve protected you, and loved you, and this is how you decide to return that. With absolute shit!” 

Momi clutched at his hands, her body growing weaker as she gasped for air. 

“You’re nothing to me now.” He said, letting go. He barked some orders to the Machoke standing not too far away, who gently scooped Momi up in his arms, and brought her upstairs. While the Machoke made sure she didn’t leave the house, it was never mean to her. It didn’t seem to appreciate the way Momi was treated, but the creature was loyal to her father. Not to Momi. 

Momi was brought to her room, and the door was closed rather quietly. She paid attention, and heard the Machoke settle outside her door. It was there to keep her in. She wasn’t even allowed to leave her room right now. This wasn’t the first time this had occurred.

Momi curled up in her bed, and began sobbing. That was the only thing she could do right now. Her mind was clouded with thoughts of fear, thoughts of anger.. And thoughts of hatred. She hoped her father tripped down some stairs. This was the last straw. She’d had it. 

She was supposed to be grateful to him? The man who just punched her. The man who’d just screamed at her face, and stopped her from breathing? He’d done this before, many, many times. And she was supposed to love him, and thank him, and praise him. 

No.

Not anymore.

Momi dried her tears, and sniffled. She got up, and pulled an old backpack from her closet. It was white and pink, with cute tiny strawberries designed on it. She’d carried around when she was much younger, but it was the only backpack she had. She couldn’t really fit it on her back, but, around one of her shoulders it was fine. She stuffed some clothes, some granola bars she kept in her room, and her lockbox inside. She looked around her room for anything else she might need. She put a small blanket on the inside of the backpack, but she couldn’t really fit much else. She’d prefer to take some money with her, but her parents never gave her any. 

She opened up her window, and looked down… She gulped. One wrong move climbing out of here.. And she was most likely dead. She carefully moved things off of her desk before stepping onto it, and sticking one leg out of the window. She searched for some sort of foothold, and found one in between the house’s bricks. She carefully pulled her other foot out of the window, and searched for a foothold.. But couldn’t find any. Now she was staying up with the power of her arms, and the support of the foothold.

In retrospect, she wished she’d taken her sheets and tied them to something like she’d seen done in movies. 

But this wasn’t a movie, and she didn’t have the time to sit and think about her actions. She had to find another foothold quick.. Her hands were slipping. She heard her door open.

“Momi?” Her mother’s voice called, and her steps hurried over to the window. Momis’ eyes widened, her fingers losing grip of the window. She dug her feet into the wall as hard as she could, and her fingers searched for another hold as she slipped down the wall. She grit her teeth as her hands burned, but she found another hold for her hands. She looked down. She could slide down the rest of the way… She’d be fine. For the moment, she looked up to see the face of her mom, who looked horrified. 

Momi let go, sliding down the rest of the way down. Her legs hit the ground, pain shooting up through them. Momi cried out, but turned immediately and began running as though her life were on the line. And in a way, it was. Once she got away from this place, she knew her real life would begin. She had no idea where she was gonna go or what she was going to do, but for now she was going to run. That’s all she wanted to think about. With each heavy step on the ground she felt like her past was torn away from her bit by bit. Momi wanted to be a new person. She wanted to meet people. She didn’t want to have to sneak away to go to the beach. That’s the life she wanted. 

She slowed down a bit once she’d gotten far away enough, resting a hand on the side of her face. She hadn’t looked in a mirror since then, but she was sure there was a giant bruise. The slight touch from her hand made her face twinge in pain. 

She didn’t stay still for long, once she’d caught her breath, she began running again. She looked ahead of her. A town. Iki town. She hadn’t been here in so long… The last time she’d set foot in Iki town, she had been a child. She slowed down again. A wave of relief crashed over her. She was so far away from home. Her parents wouldn’t catch up now.

Ahead of her was a larger, jolly looking man. His white hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, and on his face was a permanent smile. He talked to a younger boy with his hair pulled back as well. She recognized this man, even after all these years. Kahuna Hala.

Momi knew that he would help her out. And as much as she hated to try and take advantage of the man’s generosity, she needed it. 

“Kahuna Hala.” Momi stammered. “May I.. have a moment of your time, please.” She looked at him with begging eyes. He seemed rather interested in the mark on her face.

“Do I know you from somewhere? I feel like I recognize you, young lady.” He put his hands on his hips, furrowing his brow as he tried to place you. He then nodded.

“Momi! I remember you, you used to come to our festivals when you were little. What ever happened? Where have you been? I missed that smile of yours. My My, you’ve gotten so big!” He laughed heartily. She would have loved to stay and chat with him, but Momi was afraid afraid her parents would come looking for her here. 

“I’m sorry, I.. I haven’t come to chat.” She shook her head. “I need your help. And I don’t have much time to explain. I need.. A pokemon.. Please, Please help me out.”

Kahuna Hala closed his eyes for a second, his arms crossed as though in deep thought.

“I’m sorry Momi, at the moment, I have no pokemon to give you. But.. You seem kind of lost. Maybe not in a directional sense, but… Child, I feel like you need guidance. Take my advice.” He turned, gesturing towards the Mahalo trail. “Visit the Ruins of Conflict. Take some time at the shrine.”

Momi looked up at the daunting trail before her. She’d never been to the Ruins of Conflict. That’s where Tapu Koko resided… Did Kahuna Hala want her to meet with Tapu Koko? While she wasn’t around the area that much, she knew that the pokemon was a rather fickle creature. He wasn’t going to just waltz up to her, right?

Either way, Momi knew she didn’t have much of a choice. She had no idea where else she could go for the moment, and standing around wasn’t going to help her. This was her only guidance, and she trusted Kahuna Hala. She nodded to the Kahuna and trotted up the steps to the pathway.

Momi stopped in her tracks. Before her was a long, shaky looking bridge. She took a deep breath. She didn’t have time to sit here and be afraid. She had to cross this bridge. She had to. She couldn’t back down. She wasn’t going to let her own irrational fears get to her. This was a sturdy bridge. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t let people go across it. 

She started slowly. She gasped as the bridge slowly shifted and swayed with her added weight. She shrieked as it lurched to one side. That was it. She couldn’t take it. She broke into a hasty run, and before she knew it, she was on solid ground again.   
“Oh my god…” She looked back at the bridge, which was settling down a bit. She closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief. She’d made it. Now for the ruins. Momi looked on at the entrance, hesitant to enter. She heard the sound of tiny footsteps behind her. She turned her head. Nothing.

She started to get nervous. Was something following her? She quickly entered the ruins, and walked through them until she came to the shrine. A large stone engraved with beautiful designs. She wasn’t sure what to do. She hadn’t grown up like the other Alolan kids, she was never told how to praise the deities of the Islands. She.. just kind of assumed. She got down on her knees, bowing her head slightly.

“Tapu… Tapu Koko, if you’re there…” She began. She felt weird saying all of this. This was just.. Strange. 

“I.. I need help. I ran away from home.” She looked down at the ground. She began to feel guilty. “I suppose that’s a bad thing, huh?” She wasn’t even sure if the pokemon was here to even listen to her, or if it even understood her. But.. she surely did keep on talking.

“But I couldn’t take it anymore. The stress was tearing me apart. It was killing me from the inside out, I don’t know how much longer I could have stayed if I wanted. You have to believe me. I… I tried to respect my parents. I did. I was never a bad kid. Sure.. I.. I made a bad grade.. But.. why.. Why does it matter..” She sniffled. “It’s just a number. It’s just a number, right?”

“I’m more than that.. I think. I hope so. I…” There was nothing there to help her. This was pointless. She had sat down, and began talking about herself. Moping, like an idiot. There was no Tapu here to greet her, No Tapu here to guide her. The Tapu didn’t care about some foreigner like her. Of course, she’d pretty much grown up on this Island, but she was foreign. She knew nothing of the customs. She wasn’t a part of this place. She didn’t belong. She didn’t belong anywhere!

She rose to her feet, her fists clenching with the thought. Momi wanted to belong, but this Tapu wasn’t going to help her. She turned back down the steps, but stopped. At the entrance to the ruins, was the pokemon himself. She’d only seen him once in her life, back when she was younger. But she’d never forget the Island’s deity. She stopped breathing. She had to remind herself to continue. 

The pokemon walked towards her. She knelt down so that she was closer to it. It stared back at her with wide, understanding eyes. The two shared a moment like this, looking into each other’s eyes with an odd, tranquil peace. An exchange of feelings went through their stare. The Tapu turned back to the opening, and walked out of it. She quickly followed.

Before she stepped out of the door, she heard the sound of another pokemon. A.. bark? The Tapu stepped aside as she came out to reveal a tiny dog-like creature. It took her a moment, but she recognized it. A rockruff.

Momi stared at it blankly for a second until a smile spread on her face. She knelt down to meet the creature, and it took to her almost immediately. She wasn’t sure if the pokemon was just really trusting, or if the Tapu’s approval had to do something with it, but it jumped into her arms.

That wasn’t the last thing the Tapu had to offer. In front of Momi, it set down a pokeball before stepping back and watching her. She took the ball in her hand, and looked into the Rockruff’s eyes. What she wanted was confirmation, that this pokemon wanted to travel with her. But the little puppy was too excited to even care about what Momi was feeling. She gently placed the pokeball in front of the pokemon, and it sniffed it. She bumped the front of the pokeball on it’s snout, and the pokemon disappeared into the ball. 

When she looked back, Tapu Koko had gone. You got back to your feet, and put the pokeball in her strawberry covered backpack. She then hurried back over the bridge, and into Iki town. She was less afraid of the bridge now. With the gaining of her first pokemon… She felt almost invincible! A whole new world had just been opened to Momi, and it washed away the fear of her parents finding her. Only for a moment though. 

She ran back to Kahuna Hala, a grin on her face. He looked back at her with a smile.

“I expect everything went well?” He asked. Momi nodded excitedly. 

“Tapu Koko gave me a pokeball, and there was a Rockruff-- and I got my first pokemon!” Momi said, almost jumping up and down. Kahuna Hala laughed heartily. 

“I had a feeling it would take a liking to you. Now, Momi.” He looked rather serious. He handed her some money.

“Take this. Go. Your parents have been asking around.”

“But, I never even..” Momi blinked. She hadn’t explained to him the situation. How did he already understand what was going on?

“Go.” He said, without another word. Momi nodded, and took off. She’d have to make it through Hau’Oli without getting caught, but after that, it would be smooth sailing.  
And speaking of sailing… maybe she could get off of Melemele.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> momis a loser who thinks too much lmaoooo same tho

Chapter 4

 

Momi had made it through Hau’Oli by the skin of her teeth. She took the money, bought some cheap new clothes, and ditched her old ones before making a dash for it. She ran through the streets, not giving any time for anyone to recognize her. Police looked at her questioningly, but she didn’t stop. She kept going until she’d made it to route two. 

To her right, a house with a swingset in the backyard. And to her left, a motel. She sighed in relief, and walked inside. This motel was probably not the best idea, but she was tired. She wanted some sleep, and she wanted somewhere she could sit down and get to know her Rockruff. She stepped up to the counter, an elderly man in a floral shirt there to greet her.

“I’d like a room, please.” Momi gathered up her courage to speak. She was rather nervous around strangers, and she supposed she could attribute that to her lack of social interaction. But the man seemed kind and welcoming.

“I’m sorry Ma’am.” He shook his head. “We’re booked up completely. If there was something I could do, I would.” Momi thanked him before leaving. She sat on the steps for a second, dissapointed. What was she going to do? She couldn’t wander around Melemele forever. It would be hard, but she could get to the Hau’Oli port and go to another Island. But which one? Akala, Ula’Ula, or Poni? She didn’t really know much about any of them… 

This was becoming a mess. She couldn’t hold her tears back. She began sobbing, her body shaking and her legs becoming weak. She couldn’t return home, but now she had nowhere to go. Kahuna Hala had wasted this money on her. She was already about to give up. Momi shook her head. Her father was right. Momi was pathetic. 

She looked up.

Speak of the devil.

Her parents stood in front of her, her mother with her arms crossed and her father with an angry glare. Her mother spoke in a calm voice, but… Momi knew this calm was a facade. A fake. The two of them would blow up on her if she went home with them. She’d sustain many more injuries than last time. 

She was done being a hostage to her own parents.

“Let’s go home, Momi.” Her mother said. “Come on.” She offered a hand to her daughter, but Momi promptly refused.

“I’m not going home with you two. You both need to turn around and just leave. Leave me alone.” She got to her feet. Her hand went to the pokeball in her backpack. She didn’t know how to battle, but.. She had to try, right? And if anything went wrong, there was a pokecenter nearby. 

That didn’t even happen though. Momi was met with another fist to the face, in the same spot as earlier. It hurt twice as much, causing her to scream out as she stumbled and fell onto the asphalt. Tears streamed down her face. She’d let it happen again. She let him hit her. Why was she so pathetic? What was wrong with her?

Her father stepped forward again, and Momi knew he was preparing to hit her again. He didn’t care if they were in public or not, he was pissed. Momi closed her eyes, not wanting to watch. 

But he stopped. His next attack never came. Momi opened her eyes. Someone stood in front of her. A boy about her age dressed in black stood in front of her… Some.. abomination of a pokemon stood before her parents, threatening them. The boy had blonde hair that was cut to be a little messy, his fringe sticking up kind of strangely. In his ear she could see two piercings.

Her father glared, his fists balling up. “And who do you think you are? Scram, kid.”

“I think you know very well who I am.” He flipped his hair. Her parent’s eyes widened. They looked at Momi, and back to him. 

“I think I know bad parents when I see them. You scram.” The boy hissed. And her parents actually… left. They had no more arguments. They got out of there. The boy turned, putting his hands on his hips.

“Are you just going to sit there on the ground or what?” He scowled. Momi quickly got to her feet.

“Thank you, Thank you so much. You have no idea how much that means-- What’s your name?” Momi asked. He returned his pokemon to its ball.

“That’s not important. I’m assuming you’re a runaway, huh?” He rolled his eyes. Momi nodded. He continued, “Well, you shouldn’t stay around here if your parents are going to harass you like this. You need somewhere to go, don’t you?”

Momi nodded again. She couldn’t find her voice to speak. He was rather intimidating. He looked down on her like she was stupid. And she hated it. It made her want to cry. But, he’d just saved her.. She was extremely grateful. She wouldn’t challenge him over it. 

“Well, you should head for Ula’Ula Island. Go to Po Town. Tell them Gladion sent you. You may not like what you find there, but I promise you, It’s your best shot.” He turned. “Now, scram.” He walked off. 

Momi stood there, and watched him go. Ula’Ula Island. Po Town. Thanks to this guy, her parents left her alone. And thanks to him, she now had a bit of a plan. She clutched her pokeball in her hand, staring down at it. Time to head to the Hau’Oli port. 

Although her parents had been scared off, she still hurried through Hau’Oli to the port. She stood at the port for a second, watching the waves crash against it. The sound was rather pleasing… 

Momi bought a ticket to Ula’Ula, but the next ferry wouldn’t be leaving for thirty minutes. She’d been told by the kind ticket vendor that this was the last ferry to be leaving for the night, and Momi smiled. Looked like things would finally be going her way for a while. She stood at the edge of the port and closed her eyes. She pushed out every thought in her head except for the sound of those waves. She’d never get tired of them. Alola was such a beautiful place. She was glad that her parents had moved here. She was glad to live here. For the first time in a while, she was glad to be Momi. 

Although, she got the eery feeling that she was being watched. Her parents? She turned. No. They weren’t there. Instead she was met with the kind face of a guy who appeared to be slightly older than her. His eyes seemed to light up the area, the light danced off of them almost perfectly. His pink hair was done nice as well, it looked taken care of.

“Are you a trial-goer?” He asked. “You have that look of determination.” 

Momi shook her head. Even with her minimal knowledge of the people around here, she knew what he meant. Many kids would begin their trials to become the Island Champion. In order to do so, one must defeat each Captain’s trial and overcome a totem pokemon. Once each Captain’s trial was completed, you’d have to beat the Kahuna. But Momi was never too interested in that. It seemed way too rigorous for her liking. So she shook her head.

“Ah, okay. Well, I’m Captain Ilima. If you ever consider starting your trials, you should start here on Melemele. I am the only captain on this Island, so people go straight from my trial to fighting Kahuna Hala. But if you aren’t a trial goer, what are you doing, friend?” He gave a heart warming smile.

Momi turned to look at the ocean. “I’m heading to Ula’Ula Island.”

“Oh my, Ula’Ula is truly a beautiful Island. I’ve only had the chance to go there maybe twice. Perhaps I’ll consider visiting it again sometime soon.” The Captain shrugged. “Well, I hope you have a safe trip.” He gave a small wave, and walked off to greet some others. 

He left her with a good feeling. He was so positive and upbeat, and well… downright pretty. Momi turned back to the ocean. She spent the rest of the time waiting on the ferry reflecting on the recent events. Some made her stressed, Some made her feel proud, and some just made her feel awful. But, when she thought about it, any emotion was good. She never got to experience so many things, even if they were bad. She felt so lucky to have had Gladion there to help her. 

That pokemon he possessed. It shocked her, and scared her. Something was not right about it, and she wasn’t even sure if it was a pokemon. Either way, she didn’t want to be around it. It’s front feet were clawed and looked like.. They didn’t even belong to the creature. It’s face was encapsulated by a brown helmet that seemed to be hiding whatever was inside rather than protecting the beast. 

Momi looked up as the ferry pulled into the dock. She showed her ticket before stepping on with a few other people. She quickly moved away from them and headed to the side of the boat. She rested her arms on the railing, and watched the waves as the ferry moved gently across the ocean. She wondered what Ula’Ula would be like. She wondered if they had any different traditions that she’d get to experience. But for Momi, an even bigger question stood. What lied in Po Town? She had no reason to trust this Gladion character-- Well, other than the fact he had saved her from her parents. He had been so vague about it, she was slightly annoyed by it.

Momi supposed she’d just have to find out. It was kind of exciting, really. She had nothing to expect, she’d get to experience something completely new without having to prepare for it, without studying it, without knowing everything about it. Which, at the same time, was terrifying. Momi wondered about something. Her parents had so willingly left after Gladion’s appearance. Did they know him? It sure looked like something had happened between them.   
Gladion sure did dress weird, Momi thought. He’d worn almost all black, and his jacket had a strange design. Momi wasn’t too sure what it was supposed to be, it kind of looked like a rip or a tear. His ear piercings were pretty cool, though. She wondered if they’d hurt too bad. Maybe She could get something like that. 

She looked up at the sky. It was dark already. The moon floated in the sky above her, casting its light onto the waves that crashed against the ferry. The moon was full, and Momi felt happy to see it. Not a cloud tainted the night sky tonight. The stars shined their brightest, and Momi liked to think they shined for her. She wanted to shine like these stars. 

She ran a hand through her hair. Her hair. Maybe she’d get it cut short? The thought made her giddy. Her parents always made her keep her hair like this. She sure did wish her hair was curly. But no, it’d been perfectly straight ever since she was born. That isn’t to say her hair wasn’t a mess sometimes, but once brushed out, it stayed like this. Boring. 

She yawned, and sat on a bench near the railing. She leaned back, closing her eyes. Maybe.. She could just let her eyes rest a few minutes.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Momi was awoken only a few minutes later by a kind passerby. It was an elderly woman, one of her hands holding her shawl around her and the other shaking Momi awake.

“We’ve arrived dear. My, you must have been tired to fall asleep here of all places.” She smiled, and offered Momi a peppermint, to which Momi declined. Momi thanked the woman for waking her up, and slowly got to her feet. It wasn’t going to be this easy. Of course it wasn’t. Momi couldn’t get on a ferry to Ula’Ula and expect to just waltz off the ferry onto the island like an actual person. What a shame that would be. 

Standing at the port, with their arms crossed, bandanas worn with pride, and jewelry sparkling in the sunlight, were four Team Skull losers. Two girls on the left, Two boys on the right. One of the guys stepped forward, waving his arms around in a stupid fashion. 

“Yo, hand over all of your pokemon, and your money too while you’re at it!” The other team skull members shouted their agreements. People looked around, rather afraid. The elderly woman clutched her shawl closer around her. People began reluctantly handing over their pokemon. Why were they afraid of these idiots? Why were they giving up like this? These numbskulls probably couldn’t hurt a fly. Momi opened her mouth to speak. And then closed it. .What was she going to say? ‘Stop, Thief!’ Was she going to courageously stand up and fight them with her rockruff? She couldn’t do that, she’d never battled before. And honestly, she knew that would probably just end up with her rockruff getting taken. She was proud of the gift Tapu Koko had bestowed upon her. She wasn’t going to let it slip through her fingers like that.

But then again, was she just going to stand here and watch these people lose their pokemon? Momi was pretty sure she could get away without them knowing she had one on her.. But still. It wasn’t fair to the rest of these people. 

Momi wasn’t brave, though. She knew this. She wasn’t some kind of heroine in a book, this was real. And if she played her cards wrong, she could get terribly hurt. And Momi wasn’t confident that she knew how to play her cards right. But the looks of despair on these people’s faces… It hurt. It hurt to see it. 

Momi swallowed her fears and pushed them to the back of her mind. She stepped forward, in front of the group of people. She faced the Team Skull Members, putting a hand on her hip, the way Gladion had before. She tried putting on a scowl, but.. She wasn’t too good at it. She just tried to copy the blonde she had met earlier. 

The Team Skull members looked her up and down. She did her best to look intimidating. She cleared her throat.

“Give back their pokemon!” Momi declared. “Or.. Or else…” Her voice wavered.

Silence fell over the Team Skull members, and also over those behind her. It stayed like this for a second, Momi struggling to keep up her confident face. And then each Team Skull member busted into laughter, hunching over and laughing as hard as they could. One wiped away tears from her eyes, looking at Momi.

“What are you gonna do if we don’t, kid?” She asked, putting her hands on her hips and stepping closer to Momi. Momi scrambled for an answer, stuttering a bit. The girl shoved Momi backwards. Momi stumbled back a little bit, but she kept her balance. This kind of.. Made her mad. She was a person to hardly ever get angry, but this girl had ticked her off. Momi shoved her back. The Team Skull chick grit her teeth, and clenched her fists. 

“Who the hell do you think you are?” The pink haired girl stepped forward, swinging a punch. Momi had enough sense this time to dodge, but barely managing to do so. Momi didn’t have a choice. She pulled out her pokeball, and sent out her rockruff. The Skull girl stepped back, blinking at the sight of the tiny pokemon. It let out a fierce bark. This only earned Momi more laughs from the group. This was starting to get to her. She didn’t like this. They thought she was stupid, they were making fun of her! She shook her head and narrowed her eyes at them. 

“Rockruff!” Her voice got loud, determined, and strong. But, her next words wavered. “..Attack?” She didn’t know anything about battling. The rockruff sprang forward and sank it’s teeth into one of the boy’s ankles. He yelped and kicked his leg out, launching Momi’s rockruff into the rail of the boat. 

“Rockruff!” Momi yelled out again, her voice cracking. This was awful. She scooped her rockruff into her arms, clutching the tiny pokemon against her chest. It whined, holding up one of it’s paws. 

In a flash, Something stood between Momi and the Team Skull members. It was red, with two arms that had gold hooves on the end, a golden bell-shaped tail, and a flower like shell on it’s head. Momi squinted a bit, trying to figure out what it was. It had to be a pokemon, but…

She heard the people behind her gasp. “Tapu Bulu!” One person shouted. 

So, this was the Tapu of Ula’Ula.. And he’d come to protect Momi and the others. Momi’s eyes widened as she stared at the deity before her. She couldn’t believe it. It was such a strange coincidence that in the span of two days, she’d been protected by two Tapu. 

The presence of the creature was enough to shock the Team Skull members. The way it stood in front of Momi, almost protectively, struck fear into their hearts. They quickly returned the stolen pokemon and made a run for it. Momi grinned, sticking her tongue out at them as they left. She looked back down at her rockruff. It seemed fine now, licking at her face and making pleased barking sounds before she returned it to it’s pokeball. 

Tapu Bulu turned and looked at Momi. It stared into her eyes, and she stared back. She took a step closer, but she wasn’t sure why. The two stared at each other in a weird kind of understanding, and she was reminded of her encounter with Tapu Koko. Tapu Bulu came forward, closer, and stared even longer. It set something in front of Momi before leaving. Momi knelt down to pick up the object. It was just a rather shiny stone. She couldn’t deny it’s beauty, especially the way that the moon’s light bounced off of it. The people behind her rushed forward, bombarding her with questions and congratulations.

“The Tapu must really like you!” “Can I see the rock he gave you?” “Can I have it?” “What’s your name?” “Are you alright?”

Momi couldn’t take it. These people had good intentions, she knew that. Well, some part of her did. But they were crowding around her, she couldn’t find a way out of this crowd. All of their attention was on her, and all of a sudden, her legs felt weak. She was hit with a wave of nausea and she could feel the world tilt to one side as gravity fought to pull her to the ground. A strong arm held her up. The arm belonged to the kind woman with the shawl from earlier.

“Give the girl some space. It’s late, I’m sure she’s tired after all that. Here honey, why don’t you come stay with me tonight? I’ll get you a good, warm meal.” The woman smiled, and began leading Momi off. Momi didn’t say anything, but she just gave a few nods.

The kind old woman lead her away from the crowd and into Malie city. Momi didn’t do a lot of sightseeing as the woman lead her to her small home.

“I used to have a daughter, but she’s out on her trial. She won’t mind if you use her room.” The elderly woman smiled. “How about I prepare you something to eat, get some meat on those bones!”

Momi looked at herself. She’d never really thought of herself as skinny, but she’d never had many people to compare herself to. She stretched out her arm, looking at it. Come to think of it, she was rather small compared to some of the other people she’d been seeing lately. Her parents were always very careful about what they let Momi eat. She recalled seeing her mother sit down sometimes and add up the calories and other parts of meals before deciding whether or not she should have it cooked for dinner. Either way, Momi was starving. She quickly nodded to the woman. 

“Thank you so much for helping me out.” Momi said, taking a seat on a comfy couch. The woman flashed her a smile before heading to the kitchen. Momi sat there by herself for a moment. It felt kind of strange being let into a stranger’s home. And frankly, it was kind of dangerous. But she didn't see any reason to fear his woman. Momi didn't feel comfortable sitting alone by herself. She got back to her feet and stepped into the elderly woman’s kitchen. She stood over a stove, throwing spices into a huge pot. She hummed as she moved around the kitchen. Momi opened her mouth to speak but kind of got nervous. She finally built up the confidence to speak.

“Could I help you cook?” Momi asked, shifting her weight on her feet.

The woman turned, her face now painted with a smile that lit up the room. It made Momi feel better about everything. Maybe things would be okay now. This woman was showing so much kindness to her, it was unbelievable. That smile showed so much warmness and generosity. It was like the sun, the sun that warmed Momi’s heart when she sat on the beach. 

 

“Of course. Have you ever cooked before?” She asked. Momi shook her head. She technically had, but it was really just her throwing something together if her parents worked late. Which wasn't often.

“Really? Well, I'm cooking up a nice stew. How about you peel these potatoes, honey.” She pointed to a sack of potatoes resting on a counter. The woman carefully handed Momi a knife. Momi carefully began peeling the skin off of them, rather awkwardly. Momi was afraid of cutting herself with the knife, her hands shook a little bit. The older woman clicked her tongue and stepped over to help Momi.

“You can't be so afraid, honey. It's not gonna hurt you unless you let it. You'll be okay.” She helped Momi, showing her better ways to slice and cut the potatoes. Once she had peeled all the skin off, Momi was instructed to cut the potatoes into makeshift cubes. Once she was finished, the elderly woman tossed them into the stew. 

“Now, it just has to cook.” She sat down at her small kitchen table, sighing in relief as she let her old bones rest. Momi sat nervously across from her. 

“So, child. It's really amazing that Tapu Buli came to your aid. Is that your first time meeting a Tapu?”

 

Momi pondered over that question. She felt weird telling the woman about her meeting with Tapu Koko, but at the same time, there was no reason to lie about it.

“No, Tapu Koko came to me once. He gave me my Pokémon.” She held up the pokeball containing rockruff. 

“That's amazing. I've never heard of a Tapu giving someone a Pokémon. You best take care of it, the Tapu must have done it for a reason.” 

Momi nodded, looking down at the ball in her hand. Her Pokémon. She wanted to get to know her rockruff. But she hadn’t really had the time. She wasn’t going to let it out in this woman’s house. But, maybe later she’d get to properly meet it. 

Soon enough, the stew was finished. The elderly woman poured two bowls, setting them on the table along with glasses of water. Momi took the spoon in her hand, gently raising it to her lips so she could cool it. After a few moments of blowing on it, she carefully tasted it. The different spices Momi had watched her put in earlier really came through. She wasn’t sure what all these different tastes were, but she relished the feeling of the warm stew going down her throat. She hadn’t eaten in quite a bit now, She wasn’t even sure if she’d had breakfast this morning. She couldn’t remember…

It’d been such a long day. 

After having her fill of stew, her eyelids drooped and she yawned. The woman chuckled a bit before showing her to a small room. The walls were pink and decorated with many posters belonging to bands Momi had never heard of or seen. She didn’t pay too much attention to the rest of the room. She just crawled into the small bed, pulled the blankets over herself, and closed her eyes. It was almost immediate that she fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> very short chapter, rip

Chapter 6

 

It felt like drowning. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t see. It was all dark, but her body felt pressure. The pressure was growing. Was she sinking? Into the bottom of the ocean? She had to get out. She needed air. Her lungs cried for it. Every fiber of her being knew she needed it. She flailed her arms, trying to push herself upwards, trying to swim through this ugly darkness. 

She felt her head come up above something. Cool, refreshing air wafted over her skin and filled her lungs. She smiled in relief. But she still couldn’t see. Or was there nothing to see? Everything around her was black. She looked down at her own hand. She could see that. The so-called water that kept her up looked terrifying. Oil? Was she drowning in oil?

Something grabbed her ankles. She screamed out in surprise, and this only worked to her disadvantage. The Oil filled her mouth as she was dragged back under. Blinded once more, she couldn’t force her mouth to close. The horrid sludge forced it’s way down her throat, filling her lungs. This only made her heavier, made her sink faster. Why was she sinking? She fought to pull herself back up, moving her arms in practiced motions like the swimmers she saw on TV. Someone help her. Please. Help her. She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream. But she couldn’t do anything. 

Why was this happening? Who was doing this to her. 

She pried her eyes open through the oil. Her eyes stung and burn, but somehow, she could see through all of it. She looked down at what dragged her further through the muck. Her parents hands. She saw the wedding rings. She knew who they were. They pulled her down. She began to kick, her body washing over with a paralyzing fear. 

She fell through the oil, instead. As if at the bottom, there was an opening. She fell into a small room, but she didn’t get to examine any of it before throwing up all of the sludge. It burned as it came up. It felt like fire rampaging through her organs. Her body convulsed in shakes and tremors as tears dripped down her face. The room was filled with ugly sobs as she cried. On the bright side, it cleared the oil from her eyes. She could get a clearer picture of the room.

A cage. 

She shakily got to her feet, looking around. Outside the bars of the cage was her living room. But, it was much bigger than her. She was so tiny inside the cage, she felt so small…

Her mother and father stepped in front of the cage, her mother giving a gentle smile. The two were giants to Momi. Her mother placed her hand on the cage, shaking it slightly. Momi was thrown into the bars, knocking the wind out of her. 

“What a beautiful pet.” Her mother crooned. “I can’t wait for the day you sing for us.”


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Momi woke like she had been hit with a ton of bricks. She gasped for air, her body spasming roughly. She felt warm hot tears already collecting on her face. She closed her eyes, and focused on regulating her breathing. Once she’d calmed herself down, she looked up at the ceiling and realized. 

She’d already forgotten what the dream was about. 

She supposed that was for the best, that way it wouldn’t be bothering her throughout the day. She actually felt relatively good, her legs ached slightly but she was full of energy. She hopped to her feet and looked around the room. A small dresser had a mirror. She stepped over to it, and examined herself. Her hair was messed up pretty badly. She ran her fingers through it in an attempt to make it somewhat better, and it helped a good bit. Not too many tangles. She stepped out of the room, and into the livingroom. The elderly woman was sitting on her couch, scribbling away in a puzzle book. She smiled as Momi approached her.

“Dear, why don’t you take a shower before you leave? It may be the last opportunity you have for a while. It seems like you have a long journey ahead of you.”

What was it with old people and knowing things before she told them? Jeez. But the woman was being kind with this offer, and Momi happily accepted. She hadn’t the slightest idea what was going to be waiting for her in Po Town, and she didn’t know how far away Po Town even was. So she found the bathroom, and quickly got the water going. 

Once inside, she sighed in relief. The warm water felt so good on her skin. Showers had always helped Momi destress. She loved it. 

She couldn’t help but let her thoughts wander as she showered. She didn’t want to think about Po Town. There was no point in going over it and over it and over it. Thinking about it wouldn’t prepare any more answers for her. She’d just have to find out when she got there. Gladion seemed like a nice enough guy, he was kind of rude, but she didn’t think he’d steer her in a bad direction. Although, he had mentioned that she may not like it. Gladion didn’t even know her though. He had no idea what she’d like and dislike. Yea, she promised herself. She was going to like what was in store. And she was going to make the best of it. Life was so much better away from her parents. She had so much to be grateful for, especially this kind woman taking care of her for now. 

Once she was clean, she slipped back on her clothes… she’d prefer new ones, but… she’d have to do what she had to do. She didn’t have a lot of money left from Kahuna Hala. She’d have to ration it, and food was a lot more important.

She stepped out of the shower, grabbed her strawberry backpack, and went to the living room. 

“It’s about time I leave. Thank you so much for everything.” Momi said. She really meant it. She wanted some way to pay the woman back, but she also knew that she really couldn’t afford to pay her, and she also couldn’t afford to worry about something else right now. 

“You’re oh so welcome dear. You’re welcome back here if you need me. I’ll do anything I can to help you. Stay strong.” She smiled. “I don’t know much about what you’ve gone through, what you’re going through, or where you’re going, but I wish you luck.” She said. Momi smiled, and wasn’t sure what else to say. So she gave a small wave, and headed out the door. She took a breath of fresh air. She adjusted her backpack, before beginning to walk. She stopped at a pokecenter, and after an awkward interaction with the nurse, had them check her rockruff. He was in perfect health, thankfully. The nurse also gave her a map. 

She found the direction she was heading in, and began on her way. She admired the city as she went. It was quite gorgeous, and somewhat looked like photos she’d seen of Johto. There were appetizing restaurants, and a garden she wished she had time to visit. With each passing restaurant, her stomach growled. She shook her head. She couldn’t think of food right now. She wanted to make it to Po Town as soon as possible. Bamboo shoots rested on the sides of the roads, and she heard pokemon crawling among them. She also wished she had time to explore them. Maybe she could buy some pokeballs and catch some more pokemon herself! But… what use would more pokemon be when she wasn’t even sure how to battle?

Why would Tapu Koko go out of his way to give someone a pokemon, when they didn’t even understand pokemon battling in the slightest? And Momi didn’t even have anybody to teach her. She wanted to know. What if something happened to her? She hated this feeling of helplessness. She’d just have to deal with _not knowing. ___

__She headed into a grassy area. Bamboo shoots accompanied trees, and… trainers stood under them. While Momi had no knowledge about battling, she knew that trainers challenged each other if they made eye contact. She doubted most people would force someone who didn’t want to battle to battle, but… she didn’t want to take that chance. What if someone threatened her if she didn’t battle? What if she tried to battle? If she lost, she’d lose all the money Kahuna Hala so graciously gave to her._ _

__She decided she’d try her hardest to sneak around them._ _

__That is to say, Momi tried to sneak around the trainers are ridiculously failed. She got some odd looks, but thankfully her strange antics made no one want to battle her. She ‘snuck’ past each one until she had made it a block. There was no where else to go. She looked around. She supposed she’d have to ask someone about how to get to Po Town. She found a rather kind trainer._ _

__“Excuse me, but uhm…” Momi paused. “How do I get to Po Town?” Momi asked, giving a smile._ _

__The trainer blinked. “You… want to go to Po Town?” They looked kind of disgusted. Momi’s heart dropped. Was something wrong with Po Town? She.. didn’t want to ask._ _

__“Yes, could you tell me how to get there?” Momi held on tightly to her backpack._ _

__“You’re going to need either a boat, or a water pokemon to carry you there.. If.. If you pay me,” The trainer devilishly grinned. “I’ll take you across on my lapras.”_ _

__Momi sighed, and handed over some money. The trainer demanded more._ _

__This was going to be a long day._ _

__After giving the trainer the money they desired, they brought Momi to the beach and let out their Lapras. They got on first, and had Momi get on the back. Truth be told, Momi felt extremely uncomfortable putting her arms around a stranger, but it was that, or fall into the water._ _

__The water.._ _

__As the Lapras began swimming, she watched the waves. She closed her eyes and listened once more to the comforting sound. The smell of salt filled her nostrils and she didn’t think there could be anything better in the world. What did people who didn’t live in Alola enjoy? How could everyone not love the ocean like this? It was so amazing… She wanted to sit and listen all day._ _

__Before she knew it, she was off the Lapras and on solid ground again. The trainer didn’t even say goodbye before they swam off. Momi took a deep breath, and continued down the road, looking for some sign of Po Town._ _

__A sign told her that this was route 16, a pokecenter stood by. She walked past it, and found herself in a completely different place. Red flowers covered the area. Wooden planks made a makeshift bridge through this foggy area. Trainers were here too. Momi used the same antics she used earlier to get past them. They seemed to think she was absolutely crazy, and they had every right. She looked like an idiot trying to sneak past them. The place had such an amazing aroma, the flowers clearly giving it off. She snagged a flower, running her fingers over the petals and lifting it to her nose to more accurately get a sense of the smell. The pigment of the petals was quite soothing as well. It was a red, but it wasn’t too bright, or too dark. A nice mix. Easy on the eyes. Calming. She stuck the flower in her backpack, and carefully continued on her way out of this meadow._ _

__Next, she found herself on route 17. A light rain fell from the sky, but she kind of liked it. It wasn’t enough to leave her drenched, but enough to keep her cool. She raised her face to the sky, and opened her mouth, letting the rain drops fall into her mouth. She smiled. This was nice._ _

__Although, on this route, she soon noticed the abundance of team skull members standing around in different places. She continued walking. She didn’t make eye contact. She didn’t want to admit that she was afraid of them, what were they doing here? Those idiots. She couldn’t stand them, she couldn’t stand being around them._ _

__It didn’t take her long to find the entrance to Po Town._ _

__But, the important thing that Gladion figured Momi wouldn’t like probably had to do with the fact that two Skull members stood right in front of the entrance. Momi gulped. What was she going to do? She wanted to get into Po Town, but was it just guarded by them? Are there more of them inside?_ _

__What if Po Town was covered in them? What would her next plan of action be? She’d come all of this way, she’d faced off against those Team Numbskull idiots back at the port, she’d had Tapu Bulu save her ass, and now she was going to have to talk to them here. She.. didn’t know what else to do. This is where she’d been sent, and until she had another idea.. She just had to keep going._ _

__She stepped right up to the two Team Skull members in front of Po Town, summoning every bit of courage in her body. She had to admit, though, that wasn’t much._ _

__“This is the entrance to Po Town, yes?” Momi asked, her hands on her hips and her chin raised high to make herself feel important._ _

__The two Skull members looked at each other, and then at Momi. “..Yea? What’s it to ya?” One spoke._ _

__“Let me into Po Town.” Momi demanded._ _

__“What, are you here to join?” One asked._ _

__“Join..?” Momi blinked. So.. this place really did have to do with Teamk Skull. She didn’t want to steal pokemon, she didn’t want to be generally awful like these guys.. But, what other option did she have right now? She could definitely go back to the woman who took care of her.. But she didn’t want to put that on her. She already had someone to take care of, she wouldn’t impose._ _

__Momi wanted to pave her own way.. And it seemed… It seemed like this was her way._ _

__At least, like this.. She’d get to know them better. She could learn about them, and.. Take them apart. Inside out. One day._ _

__She could have them teach her how to battle._ _

__Maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all._ _

__Momi closed her eyes, and crossed her eyes. She opened her eyes, and her mouth, letting out a definite, “Yes!” drawing upon the rest of the courage she had in her._ _

__The two looked at her for a moment, before opening the doors._ _


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo sorry for the hold up, school has me busy
> 
> also, my big sister found my fanfiction so mission abort she's not allowed to read this

Chapter 8

 

When Momi stepped through those doors, she was opened to a completely different place. The rain pelted onto the ground in sheets and Team Skull members littered the area. They all turned to look at the newcomer stepping through the doors. Momi got a little nervous again, crossing her arms and hugging herself as she continued through the city. The Team Skull members who had been at the door were walking on either side of her.

“If you want to join Team Skull, we’ll take you to our leader. You’ll have to convince him to give you a chance, and if he does, you’ll have to prove yourself.” The one on her right said.

“Prove myself? What will I have to do?” Momi swallowed. 

“It’s different. He’ll tell you.” The one of her left answered her. 

“He?” Momi blinked, turning her head to look at the teen beside her.

“Guzma.” They both answered.

Momi was lead into a run-down mansion, after becoming acquainted with several other members who squatted in strange places and made stupid remarks and jokes. One guy kept insisting that he’d let a pokemon hit him with a hyper beam if he was paid adequately. 

Once through the door, Momi sighed in relief. As much as she liked the ocean, this water was starting to get annoying. A constant downpour that already had her clothes sopping wet. She hated this feeling, her clothes clung to her skin and made her shiver. Strands of her hair clung to her face as though they’d been glued there. How were these grunts not affected? She assumed they must be used to it by now.. And the boys’ hair was tucked away in their beanies, they must not have that much trouble.

She was taken up some steps. Momi and the Team Skull members beside her were tired after like, three steps. Stairs really sucked. And there were many of them. After being lead around the mansion, they stopped at a broken window. A team skull grunt stood in front, arms crossed. 

“Ay, whats the password?” He asked. Momi blinked. She looked to the two on either side of her. The girl stepped up. 

“Tapu Cocoa.. Golisopod, and uh.. Uhh…. Man, I don’t care! Let me through!” She stuck a hand on her hip and shifted her weight to one leg, rolling her eyes. The grunt guarding the window laughed a bit. “Yeah, don’t even gotta question that kind of response.” He stepped to the side. 

And out onto the roof they went. Momi’s eyes widened as she peered over the edge. The ground was extremely slippery. She didn’t want to imagine what could happen to her if she made one wrong move. A broken neck.. Broken spine, broken _anything! _She shuddered. There were wooden planks lazily nailed in leading to another broken window. A grunt girl sat on the edge of the roof, swinging her legs over it and humming to a song. The three didn’t bother her as they made their way back into the mansion through another broken window.__

__They lead her straight ahead. The group stopped at a door, and the two grunts looked at her._ _

__“This is where we leave you,” The boy said. “Go in there, after knockin o ‘course. Then you’ll hafta ask Guzma to let you into Team Skull, if that’s what ya really want. If it isn’t… though.. You really made a mistake comin’ all this way. Don’t try anything funny either! Guzma will crush you.”_ _

__Momi looked at the two grunts for a moment, absolutely terrified. She didn’t think she’d have to go in there alone? What would happen if he turned her down? Holy crap. She knew nothing about this Guzma guy. She took a deep breath. If these guys were such idiots, their leader must be a big pushover too, right? Yeah. He couldn’t be _that _scary. And she could convince him to let her in, definitely.___ _

____She slowly reached for the doorknob, before pulling her hand back. She took another deep breath. She knocked on the door. She looked around. The two that had been with her were now gone._ _ _ _

____“It’s open.” She heard a male voice come from the inside. She slowly and carefully turned the knob, stepping into the room and promptly closing it behind her. She turned to face the person before her. Up on a makeshift throne was who she assumed to be Guzma. He sat, with one leg crossed over the other. One hand was resting on the keyboard of a laptop on a small table next to the throne. His hair was a mess, and it was a pure white with a darker undercut. Atop his head sat yellow glasses, and one of the eyes was oddly shaped, almost like a crescent moon. His eyes looked tired, but at the same time, they were intimidating. His clothes were the same black as his underlings, but he wore a short sleeved jacket with a white shirt underneath. All the same, a gold S hung from his neck in representation of his team._ _ _ _

____Momi wasn’t sure what to say at first. She opened her mouth to speak, but found that she couldn’t. Her heart beat like a drum in her chest and she felt slightly nauseous. She wasn’t going to throw up here. Throwing up in front of the Team Skull leader would be rather… embarrassing. And she’d probably be regretting it years from now. She could imagine herself, an old lady on her deathbed thinking, ‘Man…. I wish I hadn’t thrown up in front of Guzma….’_ _ _ _

____He looked her up and down, before speaking._ _ _ _

____“Who in god’s name are you? And why do you look like you’re about to piss yourself?” He rested his chin in his hand. His stare made her rather uncomfortable._ _ _ _

____The room was a horrid mess. His bed wasn’t even in a reasonable place. It was on the left side of the room, stationed diagonally, the headboard tilted in the direction of the throne. Behind the bed was a shelf with several bottles lined across it. Broken glass lay on the floor, and Momi could assume those glances wouldn’t be left intact for long. On the right side of the room there was a vase, a lamp, and a globe. The floor was covered in bright graffiti, and so was the painting that hung behind Guzma._ _ _ _

____“I asked you a question kid, you gonna answer or what?” He rested his hands on his hips and looked at Momi as though she was stupid. And she certainly felt like it. She took another deep breath, before straightening herself out and crossed her arms._ _ _ _

____“I.. Uh, no. My name is Momi, and I’d like to join Team Skull.” She said. Her voice wavered as she spoke, and she prayed that he hadn’t noticed. He slowly crossed his arms as well, blinking a bit._ _ _ _

____“You? You wanna join?” He laughed. “Okay. And give me one good reason you should be let in.”_ _ _ _

____Momi blanked.  
“Exactly.” He shook his head. “If you can give me a single reason why you’d benefit me with your pitiful existence, I’ll consider it.”_ _ _ _

____Pitiful existence. Those words kind of stung, and it brought up a question Momi didn’t like thinking about. It made her feel insignificant. It made her wonder if she was important, and made her realize how small she really was in the world. She didn’t like it. But she couldn’t say anything. She needed to come up with an answer quick, she knew that. But this was irritating her, gnawing at the back of her mind while the rest of it scrambled to answer his stupid question._ _ _ _

____“Because.. Because..” Momi’s breath stopped. “..I have no where else to go.” She really didn’t. She wasn’t sure what she’d do. She needed this right now. She had to have somewhere to stay for a bit before she could figure out what her next idea would be. And this would be it. She recalled thinking about shutting them down from the inside earlier, but that was one tall order. Maybe it wasn’t that crazy, though. If anyone would get rid of Team Skull, they’d probably have to do it from the inside. It wouldn’t be that bad of an idea, right?_ _ _ _

____ _ _

____Or was Momi just trying to justify giving in to this?_ _ _ _

____Maybe these grunts weren’t all so bad.. Now that she’d been up and close to them for a bit, their stupid words and antics seemed kind of endearing. And if she did make it here, she’d finally learn how to battle. She needed that. She needed to know how to protect herself more than anything else, and she wanted to raise her pokemon. The pokemon Tapu Koko gave her._ _ _ _

____Tapu Koko… what would the dear Tapu think of her now? At the doorstep of those she had fought against only a day ago? The people Tapu Bulu protected her from. She felt like joining them was spitting on the gifts they’d bestowed upon her. But what other choice did she have right now?_ _ _ _

____At least this way, she’d learn to battle with her rockruff._ _ _ _

____He crossed his arms, and closed his eyes for a second as though he was in deep thought. She was afraid of his next words. His next actions. She knew nothing about this guy, and she had no way of knowing what he was going to do next. He seemed rather unpredictable.. Especially with the mess that his room was in._ _ _ _

____“No where else, huh?” He opened his eyes again. “You’re serious? That’s your reason?”_ _ _ _

____Momi felt the condescension in his voice. But she wasn’t sure what else to do. She knew only to stick with her answer. She nodded, her hands shaking, so she stuffed them in her pockets. She refused to look back at him. She refused to look him in the eyes. His eyes were frightening._ _ _ _

____He slowly began walking towards her. She closed her eyes tight and rr muscles tended. She didn't know what he was going to do, didn't know how he'd react. But she was going to stand here and stand up for herself. She'd be a part of team skull. She'd right things for herself._ _ _ _

____But all she felt was his hand on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to find him giving her a grin._ _ _ _

____“I think I'll give you a shot. Tell me about yourself, kid.”_ _ _ _

____Momi let out a sigh of relief, feeling a weight lifted off her shoulders. Or maybe that was just him taking his hand off of her shoulder. Either way. She opened her mouth to speak but found herself falling short. About herself? She felt like she hardly knew anything about herself._ _ _ _

____“I have a rockruff, but I don't know how to battle.” She shook her head. He looked rather concerned by this._ _ _ _

____“But! I want to learn. I need to learn.” This seemed to put him at ease._ _ _ _

____“I can’t argue with that. If you’re willing to learn, and give it all you got for Team Skull, then that’s good. But when I say give it your all, I _mean_ it.” His eyes narrowed, his voice lowering to show how serious he was. Momi started to get rather nervous again, feeling her heartbeat roar back to life in her ears. _ _ _ _

____“I don’t take kindly to people who pretend they give a shit.” He crossed his arms. “When really, they don’t care. So you’d better give it your best.”_ _ _ _

____“I will.” Momi assured him. “You don’t have to worry about that.” Was she really going to give it her best? Maybe not when it came to stealing pokemon… She’d find a way to get out of it. She could figure it out later. She didn’t need to think about it right now. If she continued to think about what she was going to do, she knew she was going to freak out. She had to calm down._ _ _ _

____So she took a deep breath, and lifted her chin up high and put a hand on her hip, copying the stance Gladion had taken._ _ _ _

____“I am honored to be a part of Team Skull.”_ _ _ _

____Man, that sounded much less pretentious in her head._ _ _ _


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> insert snarky comment

Chapter 9

Guzma grinned. “Did you think that was gonna be it? You just tell me that you’ll be committed and you’re in? Not quite, but you’re almost there.” He uncrossed his arms and stuck them in his pockets. He slouched a bit, but he was still rather taller than Momi. It made him appear like he was glaring down at her, but he really didn’t seem to mean to give off such a tone right now.

“You have to prove yourself to us.” He said. Momi blinked. The other team skull members had mentioned this to her earlier, but they hadn’t told her what she was going to have to do. 

“Alright, that’s fine.” Momi nodded, keeping her head held high. “Just tell me what to do.” Her heart was beating faster again. 

“You’ll need to get me a pokemon.” He smiled. Momi blinked, she had expected something much more difficult. But… he was probably wanting her to steal it right? 

“Well, a particular pokemon. I want a Cutiefly.” He grinned. Momi had heard of that pokemon. It was rather tiny, and kind of hard to catch, from what she remembered. She tried her best to look as confident as before, but she wasn’t even sure where to find a Cutiefly. 

“You can steal it, or catch it. Whichever one you find easiest, considering Cuteifly is a little hard to come by.” He handed her some pokeballs. “Since you’re not too used to this kind of stuff, I’ll offer you a _little_ help. But don’t expect any more handouts from me, you got it?” Towards the end of his sentence, he sounded a little irritated. Momi quickly nodded, and stood there, examining him for a moment. Momi kind of began staring off into space, as she wasn’t sure what to do next. They’d fallen silent. Then Guzma’s voice shook her out of it.

“What are you doing standing there? Get to it!” He glared. Momi nodded, turned and quickly left the room. Once outside the door, she let out a sigh of relief. A cutiefly. She could handle that, right? That wouldn’t be too bad. She’d have to figure out where to get one. But she didn’t really think asking around Team Skull would be that good of an idea, they were probably too stupid to know where to get it, right?

It couldn’t hurt to try. She walked through the mansion and made her way to the exit while also searching for a Team Skull member who seemed kind enough for her to ask a question. She spotted someone leaning against the wall. A girl, with long, wavy pink hair. Momi carefully stepped over to her.

“Hey, uh.. Excuse me. You have a second?” Momi offered a smile. The girl looked at her, and there was a slight pause. Momi could have sworn that it took forever for this girl to react, but it was probably Momi overthinking it.

The girl surprisingly returned the smile. “Are you new? I see you haven’t even gotten your outfit yet. What’s up?”

“I.. I was wondering, if you could..” Momi paused, her heartbeat racing again. As usual. Momi could always count on that, huh?

“If you could tell me where I might find a Cutiefly, in the wild.” Momi’s smile had left her in her nervousness, so she quickly smiled once more. The girl chuckled a little bit.

“Now, I ain’t really supposed to help you out with provin’ yourself to the boss. You’re lucky you asked me, ‘cause most others would have run straight to Guzma to tell on you.” She laughed a little. Momi laughed nervously, glad that she had narrowly avoided such a fate. 

“But, you know, I’ll help you out. How about I come along with you to get the Cutiefly, hm? Honestly that little critter is a two man job.” She shook her head. “I dunno why he’d send a small-fry like you after it.”

“You really mean it?” Momi looked up to her. “You’d help me?” The girl nodded, and stuck out her hand to shake Momi’s. Momi gratefully did so.

“My name is Koa. Please don’t tell me how stupid my name sounds.” She laughed a little. Momi laughed along with her.

“I think your name is fine! I’m Momi.” Momi felt rather pleased to.. Well, to have made.. A friend? Was this what that was? She felt like it was. Koa began walking to the exit, and Momi followed. 

“They show up in Route 2 and 3, and in Melemele meadow. But we ain’t gonna get into Melemele meadow, so we’re headed to routes 2 and 3.” She stepped outside into the rain. Koa didn’t seem to mind the rain at all, she paid it no mind and continued walking. Meanwhile Momi seemed rather irritated at the weather, and kept wiping her face of the water. 

Koa watched her for a second, and laughed. “You’ll get used to it. Well, you kind of have to if you’re going to be staying around here. It’s never not raining.” She shook her head. “It’s like there’s a pokemon in a perpetual state of using rain dance.” Momi laughed at the thought, imagining a sneaky water pokemon holed up in the city and constantly making it rain. 

Koa stopped in the middle of Po Town, and pulled out a small device. It kind of looked like a rather large USB? No, different. Not a USB. She pressed a few buttons and the device let out a whistle. 

“You’ve never seen a ride pager before?” Koa asked. Momi shook her head. Koa laughed. 

“Get ready.”

And as soon as she had stopped talking, a giant pokemon had landed in front of them. It took Momi longer than she’d like to admit to recognize it as Charizard. It let out a roar before turning and lowering itself to the ground to make it easier for the two to climb on. Koa gladly did so, but Momi hesitated. 

“It’ll be fine, I promise. You just have to hold onto me.” Koa gave a reassuring smile. Momi thought it over.

What the hell?

She clambered onto the Charizard and rather awkwardly held onto Koa. Koa seemed to find Momi’s hesitance rather amusing, and grabbed her arms to tighten them around herself. Momi rolled her eyes, as the Charizard looked to Koa. Koa gave the creature a nod, and it took off. Momi immediately screamed, which freaked out the Charizard. It got pretty far in the air, before kind of falling back down. Momi closed her eyes, and buried her face in Koa’s back. She managed to stop her screaming, just focusing on breathing as she could tell she was getting higher and higher.

“Calm down,” Koa laughed. “It’s okay. Even if you somehow managed to fall off, I’m sure Charizard would catch you.”

That kind of made Momi feel better. She loosened her grip on Koa and sat up straighter. They were over the ocean. And it was _magical._ She could see all the waves for miles, she could see the ocean curve in the horizon. It was such a glorious shade of blue, Momi wanted to see that blue for the rest of her life. She could spot pokemon leaping out of the water and battling each other. Pelippers flew alongside the charizard and let out greetings to the dragon. It returned them and continued focusing on it’s way. Koa lead the dragon, patting it and telling it how good of a pokemon it was. 

Momi just kept staring at the waves. It felt so calming, she forgot that she was probably hundreds of feet in the air. She turned her head, and looked at the clouds they were nearing. Momi began shivering as the air turned really cold, but the Charizard slowly descended after realizing it wasn’t the best idea to go up so high.

Before Momi knew it, they were on the ground again. Momi slipped off of the charizard, only to find her legs too weak to stand. She fell into the dirt, but she didn’t get upset. She only laughed. Koa grinned, and slid off. She pulled out a brightly colored bean and fed it to the pokemon. Momi was going to ask about whatever it was, but decided she would another time. She didn’t really care about that right now. She really only cared about the fact that she had just ridden a charizard. She’d just flown over the ocean. 

Back at home, she would have never dreamed of this. Never in her wildest dream did she think she’d find herself hundreds of feet above the ground, looking on as clouds passed her. She never thought she’d be helping out a rebel organization like Team Skull. But that in itself was a different can of worms that Momi wasn’t going to open until later. She could probably assume that ‘later’ would be when she would be trying to go to sleep. 

Koa patted the Charizard, and the beast took off again, leaving them in a familiar place. Momi looked around, finding herself in the parking lot of the motel where she had first been told to travel to Po Town.

And man, only if she’d had one of those ride pagers.

Everything would have been _so_ much easier. 

Either way, she mainly recalled this place for her first and only meeting with Gladion. She wondered if he was here now? But this wasn’t important. Koa turned to Momi.

“Do you know how to catch a pokemon? You look like you don’t know much about anything right now.” Koa laughed. Momi grinned.

“We just rode a charizard! Are you not, like, freaking out?” Momi asked. Koa shook her head.

“I ride Charizard all the time. If you do good on proving yourself to Guzma, how about I look into getting you a ride pager of your own?” Koa offered. Momi excitedly nodded and thanked her.

“So, I’m assuming you don’t know how to catch pokemon?” Koa asked once more. Momi shook her head. 

“No.. I didn’t really grow up around pokemon as much as most people.. I.. I’m sorry. If you’ll teach me.. I’ll do it.” She nodded. “I just don’t know how.” Was this girl going to think Momi was an idiot? Think Momi was useless?

“Woah, calm down.” Koa shook her head. “I’ll definitely show you. You’re fine. It’s better to learn now than never, right? Don’t sweat it.” Koa began walking, expecting Momi to follow. And of course, Momi did without a word. Koa lead her to some high grass in the area, and stood before it. 

“Watch me.” Koa said, stepping into the grass. She began searching around, pushing grass away with her hands as she searched around the area. “Aha! A ratatta!” Koa grinned. 

Momi came closer, carefully so that she could observe. Koa reached for her belt, grabbing a pokeball and sending out a Murkrow. Momi watched as she directed the Murkrow with her words, and the Murkrow listened. It carried out Koa’s every order, and seemed happy about it. Koa was smiling as she cheered her tiny pokemon on. It attacked the rattata until it was stumbling a bit, hardly able to move.

“Now, watch closely. I’ve weakened the pokemon, so now it’s gonna hardly fight back, right? Gotta weaken your opponent before you try catchin’ it.” She threw a pokeball. The ratatta was pulled inside of it, and the pokeball began to shake.

3….

2….

1….

She’d caught the ratatta. Momi smiled. “That was amazing! It’s that easy?” Momi asked.

Koa shook her head. “Not all of the time. It depends on the pokemon. As for Ratatta, it’s pretty easy to find. They’re like everywhere in some places. But Cutiefly is gonna be a little harder, on account of how small it is. And I hear it’s just harder to catch in general, little buggers will spring right out of the ball if you aren’t careful.” Koa stepped out of the tall grass. 

“Now, I’m not here to do your job for you, but I showed you how to catch pokemon. I won’t leave you here on your own, but you gotta search for the bug yourself.” Koa gave Momi a smile.

“I think you can do it, you seem like you got the guts. But you also seem like you’re gonna pass out sometimes. You just gotta calm down, kid. Breathe.” Koa patted Momi on the back. Momi smiled. A genuine smile. She felt better about it. She could catch the Cutiefly, and she’d bring it to Guzma and prove herself.

She was going to make a way for herself.

But this happiness and joy only lasted a little bit, because Koa was right. Momi searched through every patch of grass in route 2, before moving on to route 3. It was pitch black, Momi just wanted to sleep. But she wasn’t going to leave until she’d found the stupid thing. What did Guzma want with a Cutiefly anyway? He was so intimidating, and the little thing was so tiny and well, adorable. She doubted it would do him any good in battle, either. 

His reasons would have to be considered later. She needed to focus. 

Cutiefly. Cutiefly. Cutiefly.

How hard was it to catch an overglorified mosquito?

Lo and behold, after hours of Momi walking around and Koa tiredly following, there it was. The tiny Cutiefly turned around from it’s spot and looked up at Momi with its cute bug eyes. Momi gasped.

“It’s so small.. And precious..”

“Yes,” Koa agreed, “But we’re not here to admire it. We’re here to catch it. Don’t tell me you don’t have a pokemon?”

Momi nodded. “I do.” She reached for Rockruff’s pokeball. She grabbed it, and held it in her hand. She hesitated, letting her fingers brush over the cool surface of the ball. Tapu Koko had given her this gift. And.. she was using it for this. She shook her head, shaking those thoughts from her head. This wasn’t the time for this. She didn’t need to sit here and continue to contemplate her actions. This was time _for_ action. She sent out Rockruff, who happily faced the Cutiefly and let out a joyous bark at the idea of a battle.

“Do you know how to battle, then?” Koa asked. Momi shook her head. “Not.. really.”

Koa sighed. “Tell Rockruff to tackle the Cutiefly. It’s definitely got that move. We’ll get you a dex later.”

Momi nodded, and took a deep breath as if she was filling her lungs with courage rather than oxygen.

“Rockruff!” The tiny pokemon barked in acknowledgement of Momi. “Tackle!” And it leapt forward, unleashing it’s attack on the Cutiefly. The Cutiefly flew backwards a bit, recoiling from the attack. It shook itself off, and prepared it’s own attack. It used a move that Koa informed Momi momentarily was called ‘Fairy Wind.’ Rockruff was knocked back. It whined, but got back to it’s feet and waited for Momi again. Momi hesitated again. She didn’t like seeing her rockruff get hurt. The sweet thing was trying it’s best.. And it got hurt, for her. But after she thought about it, this only filled her with pride.

“Tackle, again!” It barked before rushing forward and tackling the Cutiefly. The Cutiefly was stunned for a few more seconds than the last one. The Cutiefly unleashed stun spore. Momi was getting ahead of herself. She preemptively shouted ‘Tackle,’ but Rockruff was paralyzed. It whined as it felt the pain from the stun spore.

Momi’s eyes watered at the sound of her Rockruff whining. She wasn’t paying enough attenition. She focused herself back in, as the Cutiefly unleashed another Fairy Wind.

Rockruff had collapsed on the ground.

“Rockruff!” Momi called out ot it. The tiny puppy pokemon slowly and carefully lifted itself back to the ground. It then released a growl, before waiting for Momi. Momi ordered it to tackle, as she only knew how, and the pokemon leapt forward again and tackled Cutiefly. Momi got a pokeball that Guzma had given her at the ready. 

Rockruff looked ready to pass out, but Momi quickly threw the pokeball. It captured the Cutiefly.

Now, only to wait and see if she caught it.

3…

2…

Nope. The Cutiefly busted out and used Fairy wind. Rockruff collapsed, and lay on the ground. Instead of ordering Rockruff, Momi quickly threw another ball. She had to end this, now. She wanted to run over and scoop up her small pokemon. She wanted to tell it that it was going to be okay. She wanted to thank it for working so hard on her behalf.

3…

2…

1…

Caught.

That was way too much trouble for a glorified mosquito.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what is up my guys
> 
> i'd like to thank everyone for all the nice comments and all the kudos <333333 yass boi thank u
> 
> //considering doing a nice drawing of momi

Chapter 10

Koa had healed up rockruff, and Momi put it back in it’s ball. After a quick trip on the Charizard back to Po Town, Momi could hardly wait to show Guzma what she’d done. She practically raced up the steps, tripping over them as she went. She used the same tactic to get past the guy guarding the window as she’d seen before. She carefully made her way back into the mansion through the poorly made rooftop, and headed to his door.

She proudly knocked. 

She heard the sounds of things falling over, and the door opened. Guzma stood, leaning on the doorframe, in a white tank and his skull necklace proudly hanging from his neck. But his expression was one of pure anger.

“It’s like 3am! What the hell are you doing knocking at my door at this time, you idiot?” He hissed. After a moment, he softened up slightly.

“So? Did you get it?”

Momi took a second to recuperate from being yelled at. He’d called her an idiot. Her heart was beating like a drum, the color drained from her face. She backed up a step. This.. This wasn’t right. She was going to forge her own way, but if this is.. If joining Team Skull was just another way of getting yelled at…

Guzma could obviously see the fear that had taken over her. He looked mildly irritated by it. But he grabbed Momi’s arm, and pulled her towards him. He ruffled her hair, and gave her a strange hug. She felt really uncomfortable. She wiggled out of his grasp.

“I’m sorry.” His voice got quiet. “I shouldn’t have yelled at ya, kid.” He shook his head. “I don’t typically yell at you guys. I’m sorry.” He said. It seemed to kill him to apologize, but she felt like he had actually meant it.

“Did you get the Cutiefly?” He asked. Momi nodded, and pulled the ball out of her pocket and promptly handed it to him. He released the Cutiefly. It landed on his hand. Momi watched as he smiled, examining the tiny creature. The smile didn’t last for too long, going back to his previous scowl.

“You did it, congrats. You’re one of us now.” He returned the pokemon to its ball. “So you’ll be staying here with us. How about we get you fitted for your clothes and stuff tomorrow, eh? You’ll be staying with all the others.. Uh.. I dunno who’s got an open spot in their room right now. Either go ask a lady named Plumeria, or just like.. Ask around. I’m too tired to deal with it.” And with that, he returned to his room.

Momi stood there, at his door.

He’d yelled at her. People yell. She knew that. But she couldn’t help that it made her feel awful. She hated the loudness of it. She hated the feeling of guilt she got. Part of her argued with herself, telling her that it was her fault he yelled at her. She hadn’t paid attention to the time. She really _was_ an idiot.

But she’d gotten away from her parents. She was far away from them now. It was time to abandon that kind of thinking, right? He even apologized for yelling, even he knew that he shouldn’t have.

But why did she still feel so guilty? Why couldn’t she shake these feelings?

Why did she keep feeling like everything was her fault? 

She shook these thoughts from her mind, and she realized how tired she really was. She’d searched for Cutiefly for hours, and now her body ached. She needed to sleep. She walked around the building once more in search of her new friend. Koa was found downstairs, with two mugs in hand. She looked pleased to see Momi.

“I got you some Tapu Cocoa, have you ever had it?” She asked. Momi shook her head. She’d never heard of the drink. She didn’t really care for chocolate, but she wouldn’t turn it down. She gladly accepted the mug and carefully put it to her lips. The cocoa burnt her tongue, but it _was_ pretty delicious. Truth be told, she didn’t finish the whole drink, but slyly put the mug down somewhere so Koa would assume she had finished it up. Not the most caring choice of action, but Momi was so sleep deprived she didn’t care.

“So, Guzma said I’d have to find someone to room with.. And, like, I know that you don’t really know me too well, but, if you have a spot open, I promise to be a really good roommate.” Momi was about to go on, but Koa’s laughter prompted her to shut up. 

“You’re fine. You can room with me. I used to have a roommate, but he switched rooms not too long ago. The room is messy though, and I’d like it to stay that way.” She crossed her arms. “Other than that, there’s no real rules.” She shrugged. “I’m sure we’ll have fun rooming. Unless you turn out to be actually super annoying. Then I might have to kick you out.”

She didn’t think Koa was really meaning to scare her, or make her thinks he was annoying, Koa was just kidding. But Momi couldn’t help but feel a little insecure at the thought of being kicked out of a room. Momi decided she’d do her best to be a quiet, non-annoying roommate.

Koa tiredly lead Momi to their room. It was just as messy as Momi had expected. Dirty clothes lay on the floor, a game console lay in front of a _seriously_ old TV. The wires lay sprawled out in all directions, and none of the blankets on the beds were made.

Frankly, it slightly bothered Momi. But she figured she could get used to it-- Perhaps it would be a nice change. She was rather used to order and cleanliness. Team Skull was the complete opposite. While she was out of her element, she was interested and excited to explore this different side of life.

Well, maybe interested to explore after she’d gotten some sleep. For now, her eyelids felt as heavy as anvils and her body ached from all the walking and battling from earlier. The thought reminded her of her little rockruff. She glanced at Koa, who had settled into bed with her Murkrow nesting in the blankets. So Momi took out the pokeball containing her rockruff, and let the little thing out onto the bed. It began barking in excitement, and Momi rushed to quiet it before it started bothering Koa. Which, it was probably too late. The girl on the bed adjacent to Momi’s was already shooting the tiny pokemon glares. 

After calming the pokemon down, Momi lied down in the already messy bed and closed her eyes. Rockruff curled up on her pillow, right next to her. Despite her fatigue, she found difficulty in falling asleep. Though her eyes were closed, her mind roamed and mulled over the events of today.

Team Skull. 

She joined Team Skull.

Despite the blessings she had received from Tapu Koko and Tapu Bulu, she’d gone against it and joined a rather evil-ish group. Evil-ish, because, while they had bad intentions, they sucked at their jobs. Most of them did, anyways. Guzma was actually rather terrifying. This brought another topic to Momi’s mind.

Guzma had yelled at her. Granted, she was the one to go knocking away at his door at 3am, but damn, she wanted to show off that stupid glorified mosquito. But she couldn’t lie. His voice had shaken her slightly. And brought up some bad memories. But that wasn’t really his fault, he didn’t mean to. He’d even apologized.

That made it okay, right?

Momi rolled over, resting her face on the pillow. She sighed. Back to the topic of the Tapu…

Why did they bless her anyways? They knew nothing about her. She walked up to Tapu Koko, and he gave her a pokemon. It was kind of stupid. She hadn’t asked for a pokemon. Part of her wanted to ditch this and head back to Melemele Island. But there was nothing for her there. Only abusive parents and a Tapu who would probably look down on her for this mistake. 

Maybe it was better this way. She needed to push all of this away. She could shove every single one of these problems to the recesses of her mind. She knew it. If she swallowed her problems and moved on she could do better. 

She would forget.

She’d move on.

And finally, Momi was able to get sleep. 

 

The next morning, Momi slept in. She rolled over, wrapping herself in blankets. Her rockruff bounced up and down on the bed in a failed attempt to get Momi up. Momi refused, soon returning the pokemon to its ball so that Momi could rest. She looked over at the bed next to hers. Koa was gone. Well… If Koa was up, Momi should probably make an effort.

Momi took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the courage to get up. She sat up, and ran a hand through her hair before stretching her arms. She looked around the messy room to reacquaintance herself with her surroundings. She felt better about the state of the room. 

She stood up, and was slightly dizzy for a moment. Once she stabilized herself, she headed for the door. As soon as she opened the door, she found someone outside waiting for her, fist raised as they were prepared to knock. The person before Momi was a bit taller than her, with a strangely shaped crop top and a Team Skull themed tattoo on her stomach. Her hair was pink and yellow, tied in tight, separate pony tails. Her makeup was rather strange. Her eyes were covered in white, with black eyeshadow on top of that. Her face was painted with a permanent scowl.

“You’re the new chick, right?” She was chewing gum, blowing a bubble after she was done speaking. Momi simply nodded her head, not wanting to say anything wrong that might set her off. She was extremely intimidating, to be honest. It was like she was on the same level as Guzma in that sense. 

Although, she hadn’t yelled at Momi yet.

“My name is Plumeria.” She crossed her arms. “Come with me.” She turned, and lead Momi down the hall. Before Momi knew it, she was crowded with other Team Skull members. And it didn’t take long for them to notice that she was nervous. Koa came up to her, smiling.

“Don’t worry, it’s just kind of also a part of the initiation.” She reached over, gently taking some of Momi’s hair in her fingers. “I hope you like pink.” Koa grinned. Momi laughed a little nervously. She’d never really thought about dying her hair too much. She did recall the first time that she’d come across a team skull member, she was a little jealous.

But the idea of this change was a little concerning-- Once she’d dyed her hair, it would be kind of difficult to dye it back.. But, what the hell? What was the point of an existence of asking questions over and over? She was going to drive herself insane if she sat her and thought, and thought, and thought. She could doubt, and doubt, and doubt all she wanted but it would never get her anywhere. It was time to let go. She was going to dye her hair, she was going to have fun. All these people around her seemed so excited to induct her. She wanted to be as happy as them. 

This happiness was kind of dampered as the process began.

“Holy crap man, this seriously itches! It burns!” She had to resist the urge to scratch her scalp as much as possible. She knew getting the bleach on her skin would be a problem, but it itched more than anything Momi had ever felt. It had to stop.

“Only ten more minutes!” A team skull boy who had identified himself as Jon spoke. “It’ll be okay, once you wash the bleach out, we can put in the dye. The dye won’t itch, but it’ll be kind of uncomfortable, y’kno? But we all had to do it. And you’re gonna look so good afterward!” He laughed a little nervously, scratching the back of his head. They had made an absolute mess dying her hair, several Team Skull members crammed into a tiny bathroom. Not like the bathroom wasn’t already a mess. The tile floor was permanently dyed in splotches of pinks and blues. 

“This is so awful.” Momi shook her head. “But, you’re right. I’m gonna look pretty great with the pink.” She grinned. She was honestly extremely excited. This was going to be awesome. Her rockruff had come out of its ball and was prancing around the room, meeting each Team Skull member. Several of them paid attention to it, petting it and muttering ‘awws.’ The tiny thing was overjoyed to be receiving all of the attention. 

Once the time was up, Momi dipped her head under the sink, and Koa turned it on. Koa helped rinse her hair out, massaging the bleach out of her hair. Momi laughed a little bit. “That feels really nice.” 

Koa rolled her eyes. “Enjoy it while you can, I’m not helping you when you need to redye your hair. You only get my help on the first one.”

Momi laughed again, and once the bleach was washed out, she stood up straight to be met with the blast of a hair dryer in the hands of Jon. Momi backed up, puting a hand up to block the blast from her face. Jon turned it off, giggling.

“Sorry, couldn’t resist.” He shook his head.

Koa snatched the hair dryer from him, and began carefully blow drying Momi’s hair. Jon then prepared the dye, and Koa took it from him, painting on the bright shade of pink on Momi’s once brown hair. This was a catastrophe. Koa got the dye all over Momis’ scalp, and it dripped out of her hair, landing on her shoulders and neck, dripping down her shirt. She grimaced, taking a towel and rather carefully wiping all the dye off her skin.

If only it were that easy. The dye smeared and stained her skin, but the two rather quickly informed her that it would come off within a few showers. Once the dye completely covered her hair, Koa set a timer again. 

Jon and Koa sat on the edge of the bathtub, the other Team Skull members leaving the room. 

“So,” Jon spoke, his voice rather quiet. “Why did you decide to join Team Skull?”

“That’s a personal question, you idiot!” Koa punched the boy in the shoulder.

Jon was a rather small, frail boy. His hair was in a perpetual state of being messy, and dark circles rested under his eyes. His skin was rather darker than most peoples’ around Alola. But it was kind of nice. Momi really appreciated the shade for a moment, but she noticed that her stare was beginning to make him uncomfortable. 

As for Koa, she was a rather lanky, tall girl with caramel colored skin. Her eyes were constantly darting from place to place as she observed any area, her arms almost always crossed. Her long purple hair was pulled back into a lazy ponytail, strands falling from several places. 

As for her reply to Jon’s question, she hesitated. She had no reason to hide anything about her past, yet she found herself uncomfortable talking about it. They might call her weak, maybe they’d call her pathetic. If they did, did that mean her father was right? Was Momi truly pathetic?

No. She wasn’t going to linger. She’d just decided she wasn’t going to mull over stuff. She could tell them.

“I ran away from home, and I met Gladion.” It occurred to her she’d forgotten the boy for a bit. He _had_ told her to tell them that he’d sent her, but she’d gotten too caught up with everything to tell anyone.

“He told me to come to Po Town, and that I’d find a home here.” She looked down for a second, remembering the past encounter with her parents. It still bugged her how they had completely backed down when Gladion threatened them. What did he know about her parents.

“Who is Gladion?” Momi asked, looking at Jon and Koa. 

“He’s just some really weird dude.” Jon said.

“He helps some of us out with stuff, but none of us know why.” Koa added on. “He really only talks to Guzma, though. Sometimes Plumeria. I don’t know why he’s here.”

“How often does he come around here?”

“I don’t know.” Koa shook her head. “Do you need to talk to him?” Momi responded with a nod. “Kind of. I have something I want to ask him.”

“I’ll let you know if he comes around.” Koa said. And then the wait came. Momi was starting to get rather impatient with the hair dying thing, but she was still excited. Only if it didn’t take so long. 

Koa spoke up. “You’re not the only person who’s left their parents. So don’t feel alone. Everyone here is.. Well, kind of messed up. In their own special way, you know?” Koa looked down. “Each of us got a problem, but that’s what makes this place so good. It’s like, when you get broken, you find that the pieces you carry around fit perfectly with someone else’s. So, don’t sweat it. If your old family sucked, maybe you can adopt this new one.” Koa gave a small smile. 

This kind of broke Momi’s heart. She opened her mouth to speak again, but the timer went off. Koa once more helped rinse out her hair, and dried it. Momi had refused to look in the mirror at this point.. And she slowly inched herself towards it.

Holy shit.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow its been a little bit, my bad cuh

Chapter 11

She loved it. So much. She couldn’t get enough of her new hair. Every time she passed near glass, she looked at herself. Koa had kind of done an awful job, and Momi looked rather ridiculous with her scalp dyed pink, and pink on her ears and the back of her neck, but she couldn’t care less. Her hair was pink, and that’s what mattered. And she had to admit, she was really enjoying the Team Skull outfit. It was so free, and loose, and nice. Just wonderful. She always felt like she could run probably a million miles. Well, not really. Momi couldn’t run all too long, she wasn’t the most athletic. 

She’d spent the day going around the old broken down mansions and getting herself acclimated with the other Team Skull kids. She didn’t really know many of their names, honestly. She couldn’t keep track. But she remembered their faces well, and the impressions those faces had given her. Everyone here was surprisingly kind-- Save for like, Plumeria and that one dude who guards the way to Guzma’s room. He wasn’t especially mean or anything, but he was an idiot. And annoying.

Momi really liked hanging around Koa. Koa didn’t talk all too often, and she could be rather mean if she wanted to. She’d snapped at Momi a few times when Momi got too annoying for her taste, but it didn’t hurt Momi as much. She took it as a lesson. She was learning what she could and couldn’t do, what buttons she could and couldn’t press. So she asked Koa.

“What kind of stuff will I be doing around here?” She asked. Koa glanced down at her. 

“Plumeria typically doles out assignments and deadlines for us. She’s a bit more stern than the big boy Guzma himself. But she can be nice, too. I’m supposed to be heading to Poni today. Do you want to come with me?” Koa crossed her arms. Momi excitedly nodded.

“What are we going to do?”

“Steal a pokemon.” Koa said. Momi’s heart sunk. In the midst of her excitement, she’d once again forgotten about the evil deeds that Team Skull pursued. Momi didn’t want to steal.

But. She was going to. Momi steeled herself for a moment, taking a deep breath. She nodded to Koa, raising her chin up and putting a hand on her hip. If this is what she was going to do, she’d be okay with it. No more sitting around and worrying over every single detail. Momi would get stronger

If stealing pokemon was going to make her stronger, well, looks like its time to get her hands dirty.

Koa lead Momi outside, and then Koa pulled out her ride pager. She seemed to look like she realized something, and pulled another one out of her pocket. She handed it over to Momi, and gave her a few instructions on using it.

“You got this for me?” Momi looked up at her. Koa gave a nod. “I said I would, wouldn’t I? Now, let’s get the heck to Poni Island, yea?” Koa summoned a Charizard to her, and Momi soon followed suit. Momi didn’t really feel as comfortable this time. Now she didn’t have Koa to cling to, instead she was holding onto the charizard itself. But the pokemon was rather kind, It tailed behind Koa at a somewhat slower pace so that Momi might not be as nervous. It was a failed attempt, however, as Momi found herself unable to breathe at some points. It was frightening.

This time, instead of looking down at the waves and feeling relief, she looked down and felt fear. She could fall off. Koa wouldn’t be there to catch her. She’d sink into the waves and be pulled under. Her lungs would fill with water and she’d lose herself to the cold fingers of death.

But Momi did her best to snap out of these thoughts. Like she herself had pointed out earlier, sitting here and thinking about stuff wouldn’t help. She watched, and spotted land coming close. Well, saying ‘land’ was a long shot. Really, she saw a ton of crappy piers strapped together to make a makeshift dock. Ships were pulled in, and Momi almost laughed. They were in the shapes of pokemon. 

She watched as Koa began her descent, and Momi’s charizard followed. Momi felt sick as the Charizard sped up, and she tightened her grip on it. The creature gave a reassuring noise before landing safely on the ground and letting Momi slide off. Momi took a deep breath and gripped her stomach. She rubbed the Charizard’s neck. “I’m so sorry, I don’t have any berries for you.” She shook her head. “I’ll get some, I promise.” The Charizard seemed slightly disappointed to not have received its treat. The beast gave another small sound before lifting off again, sending Momi’s hair into her face with the wind. Koa was just getting done saying goodbye to her Charizard as Momi approached her. 

“That was awesome.” Koa grinned. “I love flying.”

“It was alright.” Momi said. _She felt like she was going to puke._

Koa looked around, and began leading Momi throughout the strange place. Momi was too focused on calming her stomach to really look around, but once she felt better she scanned the area. People stood on the docks, laughing and trading items. Everyone had such a wonderful smile, Momi couldn’t help but smile as well.

Althought their smiles faded when their eyes fell on the two Team Skull members who had just entered their small town. Momi looked down at her shirt. The shirt she was feeling so confident about now had her feel ashamed. 

No. No more mulling over it. She looked at Koa, who had her head held high, and a sly grin on her face. She didn’t seem to care at all about the onlookers. She shot them all fiery glares and continued on her way. 

“So, we’re here to steal a pokemon..?” Momi looked up at Koa. Koa gave a nod.

“Word has it an old man down here has an absol. We’re gonna nab it from him.” She grinned. “Man, I’ve always wanted an absol. I hope Guzma lets me keep this one.” Koa stuck her hands in her pockets. Momi thought for a moment. She couldn’t remember seeing an absol ever, in fact- she had no idea what the creature looked like. She was a little excited now, now she was going to get to see a new pokemon.

Although… She was not excited about stealing a pokemon from an old man.

She couldn’t think about it right now.

They continued to walk, passing some houses until they got to one that was off by itself. Koa stood in front of it, getting a pokeball ready in her hand. Momi immediately imitated her, grabbing her own pokeball. 

Koa stepped up to the door, knocking on it roughly. Momi stood behind her rather nervously. She looked down at the ground and wrung her hands together, looking around. What if they got caught? Arrested? There were so many things that could go wrong. Momi pinched herself. She had to quit. 

The door slowly opened, revealing an older man. An absol stood behind him, and it instinctively began growling. It’s claws dug into the floor as it prepared to attack. The old man chuckled slightly and rested a hand on it’s head to calm it. He turned and looked at the two girls in front of him.

“Yes? How may I help you?” He had an old cane in his hands, and one of his legs appeared to be in a cast. They were really going to take this man’s pokemon..?

“Hand over the absol,” Koa said confidently. “Or there will be hell to pay. You got that old man?” She leered at him. She was so much taller than the old man.. She could probably fight him herself. This wasn’t a fair fight. This wasn’t okay. Momi found herself shaking her head, taking a step back. Koa turned her head. 

“Momi? Is something wrong?” Koa narrowed her eyes at Momi. Momi shook her head. 

“N-Nothing.” Momi took a deep breath. She didn’t want to tell Koa how she felt. Koa could get angry. Koa would tell Guzma she wasn’t committed. She would be kicked onto the streets. Momi would have to go along with this. She was going to help rob an old man, and well, that’s how it is. 

The man looked at the two of them, and he was about to close the door, but Koa stuck her foot in between the door and its frame. “Nuh uh.” She laughed.

The Absol leapt forward, teeth barred. Koa sent out her Murkrow to defend her. Momi’s hand tightened around her rockruff. She released the pokemon, and commanded it to attack the Absol, and it complied. It didn’t understand the situation. The rockruff knew only that it would follow your orders… Shouldn’t it get a say in whether or not it wants to rob an old man?

The rockruff leapt forward and scratched the Absol across it’s face. It growled and barked at the Absol. The Absol let out a cry of pain, stepping backwards. The Rockruff had gotten a clean shot at one of its eyes. The eye was clamped shut now, blood leaking from under the eyelid. The poor thing had the eyeball damaged. Momi felt awful.

“Absol!” The old man yelled out and dashed for his beloved pokemon, tears welling in his eyes. He wrapped his arms around the pokemon, who was still growling.

“Take him.” The old man looked up at the two girls before him. “Take him and leave. Only if you promise you won’t hurt him.” Tears ran down the old man’s face, and he began sniffling. Momi looked away, while Koa stepped forward. She knelt down so that she was face to face with the old man.

“Glad to see that you’re so willing to cooperate. We promise we won’t hurt it.” Koa grinned. The old man hesitantly handed over the pokeball. Koa gladly took it and shoved it in her bag. She turned to Momi, raising her hand for a high five. Momi complied, although definitely not as enthusiastic as Koa had. She lead Momi outside, and began walking back towards the pier, after returning her murkrow to it’s ball. Momi did the same with her rockruff and followed Koa.

“You look like you’re about to throw up, Momi. You knew this came with the job, yes?” Koa shot Momi a glance. Momi nodded. 

“Come on. Let’s go.” Koa pulled out her ride pager. She summoned her charizard, and left Momi in the dust. Momi stood there for a moment, and looked back in the direction of the house belonging to the old man. Why didn’t Koa feel any guilt..?


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Thankfully, Koa had informed Momi that she’d be staying the night in another room, and that Momi would have the room to herself. Momi couldn’t have wished for something better. She felt awful after the most recent events concerning the old man. What was going to become of that absol? Momi knew that she’d given it to Guzma, but what was Guzma going to do with the absol? Koa had mentioned the chance that she would be given the pokemon, but… was that it? They stole pokemon and redistributed them amongst themselves? There had to be more.

The absol aside, Momi felt heartbroken. The look of pain in the old man’s eyes when he saw his friend hurt made Momi want to curl up in a ball and never move again. She had caused him that pain- and she could have stopped it. She had the power to keep that from happening, and yet Momi didn’t. Momi is the one who hurt the absol. 

That hit her hard, when she realized that. Up until this point, she’d been pinning a lot of the blame on Koa. Koa brought her there. Koa stole the pokemon. But Mom is the one who possibly blinded the absol in one eye. She is the reason the old man was crying. She did it. Not Koa. 

Momi sat on her bed, setting her rockruff’s pokeball on the shabby bedside table. She let herself fall back onto her pillow and stared up at the blank ceiling above her. She wanted to throw up. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She reached for her rockruff’s ball, but drew her hand back. She didn’t deserve the pokemon’s consolation. It didn’t deserve her. Momi buried her face in her pillow and tried to get some sleep. 

Like that was going to help. 

She drifted off into nothingness, and felt her pain relieved in the feeling of nothing. Until her consciousness stirred in her sleep, and she found herself sinking into the same blackness that once consumed her before. But Momi didn’t know better. Once more she fought to get to the surface, to gasp for air. And she was successful. She took a deep breath of air once her head had broken through the surface, and filled her lungs. She looked around, to find that there was nothing there.

It was almost the same thing as the last dream. She was starting to remember. Something grabbed her ankles, and began dragging her down into the oil-like sludge that encased her. She screamed, but the disgusting substance found its way into her mouth, and it filled her throat. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t do anything. It felt like her lungs were on fire-- no, they were going to burst-- there were so many feelings at once, she couldn’t tell what was going on. 

She found herself falling out of the sludge, and immediately she began throwing up the black liquid.

She fell onto a hard surface, and yelled out in pain. She looked around, to find that she was seeing the same bird cage that had appeared in the last dream. Although her parents weren’t here this time to stare at her. The door opened, and the floor tipped and her body quickly slid across the floor. 

“No.. No..” Momi grabbed for anything, and caught the edge of the cage with her hands, but her grip was failing her. 

“No.. Please..” Momi grit her teeth, trying to hoist herself back up. Her strenght failed her, and she felt herself falling once more. Although, she expected to hit the ground but found herself gently lowered into darkness. She had stopped falling, and there seemed to be some sort of floor underneath her feet. But the lights turned on, revealing four mirrors. In each of them Momi could see her reflection. Each Momi looked at her, eyes narrowed, hands on their hips. 

“What’s wrong with y-” They all began to speak, but the mirrors disappeared. The lights went off, and Momi closed her eyes tight. She couldn’t take this. She hated this. Why wouldn’t she wake up. 

She felt two presences around her. She opened her eyes. In front of her was Tapu Koko. Behind her was Tapu Bulu. They stepped forward one step.

“Wait. Wait!” Momi looked at the two of them. They took another step closer. 

“Stop, Don’t be mad--”

Momi looked up at the ceiling, stretching. How long had she been out?

Felt like she’d had a dream.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> maybe guzma's not _all_ too bad, momi finds  
>  but golisopod surely is

Chapter 13

 

The next day was a bit of a rush. At first, Mom had no idea why. Grunts rushed left and right, stringing up makeshift decorations and trying to make the mess of a mansion seem somewhat clean. Upon closer inspection of the decor, Momi noticed that they were in the design of various bug Pokémon. Momi cringed a bit at the sight. She had to admit, she'd never been a fan of bug types. The ones with wings flapped so rapidly and hideously, the ones with lots of legs-- well, Momi just figured it was unfair for them to have that many legs. But at least these were just fake bugs, not real ones. But that brought her to the question, who were these decoration for? Momi scanned the groups of hurrying grunts until she spotted Koa.

“Koa!” Momi called. Koa turned her head and looked for Momi. Once she'd spotted her, she strolled on over.

“What are you doing?” Koa looked at Momi, who was just kind of standing there awkwardly.

“What do you mean? What are _you_ guys doing?” Momi took another glance at the work going on.

“You haven't heard then? It's Guzma’s birthday. And he's the guy who gave all of us losers a place to stay, and cared for us. So we gotta make it big!” Koa smiled a rather genuine smile. After yesterday, Momi had to admit that she didn't feel so comfortable around Koa anymore. She seemed so nice before, but Koa had no reservations about taking a beloved Pokémon from a helpless old man. The genuine smile Momi saw before her looked nothing like the devious grin Koa wore the day before. 

“Guzma’s birthday?’ Momi repeated the phrase, looking around. Guzma must really like bugs, then. Before Momi could ask about anything else, Koa began shoving decorations in Momi’s arms and telling her where to put them. Momi had fun with it at first, putting little bug type placemats on a table, hanging streamers and pictures of pokemon. Momi experienced a good bit of difficulty hanging a cutout of a Butterfree. Koa had given her a rather specific place to hang it.. And yet, Momi couldn’t quite reach it.

She turned her head to ask Koa for help, but Koa had gone off to do something else. Momi sighed, and hopped on one of her feet in hopes of reaching the height she needed. It wasn’t working as well as she’d liked. Momi was about to give up when she felt rather strong… arms… lift her up. Arms used loosely, of course, as they didn’t quite feel human.

Once Momi was high enough, she placed the cut out butterfree in its place and was set back onto the ground. Momi took a nervous breath before she turned around. And the behemoth she saw before her almost immediately made her scream.

The creature’s head was lower than the rest of it’s body, it’s head hunched down. The pokemon’s neck was plated with silver, large spikes coming up from the sides of its body. It had two clawed hands, with three smaller ones on each side of its abdomen. Odd purple whiskers hung from it’s face, and they connected above its eyes. The creature made a gleeful noise, using its two large arms to pull Momi into an uncomfortable, creepy hug. 

Momi thought she was going to die. This pokemon was basically a giant bug, and Momi was so close to it. She wanted to scream. It didn’t seem to have any bad intentions, but was _extremely_ intent on this hug. Once it had finally released Momi of it’s grip, Momi saw every other Team Skull grunt staring at her like she was crazy.

Momi blinked. The pokemon nuzzled her face with it’s own. Momi couldn’t help but laugh. Maybe bug pokemon weren’t _all_ surprise party? Momi looked around for somewhere to hide herself, but figured the best place would be behind the giant pokemon before her. So she did her best to make herself smaller and hide behind it.

She heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and a tired yawn. 

“Man, who left all the damn lights off? Or did the power go out? Golisopod! You there?”

Someone, somewhere, flicked on the light and everyone jumped up and screamed the word surprise at the top of their lungs. Momi, who was rather startled by the sudden noise, kind of jumped in at the end with a rather meek cheer of the word. 

Guzma stood, his hands in his pockets per usual, and looked at the group around him. His eyes darted around the room, picking out the decorations and all the smiles on the Grunt’s faces. And then he smiled as well. He took his hands out of his pockets, making some gestures as he spoke.

“You guys did all this? For ol’ Guzma?” He laughed. “Thats amazing. I ain’t tell anyone it was my birthday. You guys are really somethin’ you know?” And as quickly as they’d shut off the lights, they quickly surrounded him and said their happy birthdays. Meanwhile Momi was still interacting with the Golisopod. She was about to walk over and tell Guzma happy birthday herself, but the creature didn’t want to leave her alone. Every time she walked around it, it just went back in front of her. 

“O-Okay, bud. Let me through now. It was wonderfully nice to meet you.” Momi nervously spoke to the creature, but it only let out a shrill happy noise and pulled her in for another bone-crushing hug. This time, the Pokemon began walking, dragging poor Momi with it. Momi’s face was smushed into the Pokemons abdomen, so she couldn’t see where she was being taken. 

But then she heard everyone else start laughing, and she didn’t need to see to know they were laughing at her. The pokemon finally let go of her, but only at Guzma’s command.

“Golisopod,” He grinned, patting his pokemon. “What’s gotten into you? You can’t go around dragging my folks around like that, y’know.” He then turned his attention to Momi, who was picking herself up and taking a deep breath. She blinked, trying to recover from the shame she had just experienced before looking back at Guzma.

“It’s really unusual for Golisopod to do that.” He said. Another Team Skull Grunt pitched in. 

“Golisopod was doing that earlier! It wouldn’t leave her alone.

Guzma raised an eyebrow, looking at Momi. “You’re the kid who got me the Cutiefly, right?” He asked. Momi just nodded. She felt like she was going to puke. Now all the attention was on her, and everybody was acting like she was something special because of a dumb bug type. Sure, it had taken a particular liking to her apparently. What she’d give to just disappear right now.

“Maybe you just have a way with Bug types. You have one?” Guzma asked. Momi silently shook her head. She could feel herself start to get nervous, clenching her hands into fists for a moment in a dumb attempt to get her mind off of it.

“Weird. Why don’t you have a bug type? Everybody should have a bug type.” He stupidly grinned. “Dontcha know they’re the best type all around? Are ya stupid?” He laughed. A few others laughed with him. They were probably joking. Joking. Yes. They were kidding. They didn’t really think she was stupid.

“Ah… Bug types kind of.. Give me the creeps..” Momi said quietly. 

Guzma laughed again. “The creeps? Really?” A few others were still laughing, but it was quieting down. Momi didn’t like this. She felt like they were judging her. Every eye that looked upon her was looking in disdain. She’d said the wrong thing. Now everyone was going to think she was stupid, and awful, and horrible for the rest of her time here. She’d have to leave-- change her name-- No, that was too much. She was way overthinking it. 

“Hey.. kid.. You alright?” Guzma stepped a little closer. “You look like you’re gonna pass out-- What’s wrong?”

When Guzma took one step forward, she took one step back. And then another. But then she felt her back against something. She turned her head, seeing a rather large grunt guy behind her. He stepped back, looking at her like she was stupid. She wasn’t stupid. She wanted out. She knew she wasn’t stupid. Why was she letting all of these tiny things get to her? Tiny things didn’t get to everyone.

“Hey.” Guzma loudly barked this word, but it wasn’t necessarily angry. Just with a tone of commanding. And every Team Skull member looked up at the same time.

“Give her some space.” Then he looked back to Momi. “Look kid, it’s not that serious, just breathe. You’re really making my birthday kind of gloomy, you know.”

She was ruining everything. She was the problem. Everyone had come together for a fun day of celebration-- but Momi was ruining it. Why did she always ruin everything? It was at this point that Momi took off, finding the nearest room and locking herself in it. She just needed a moment. If she could have a moment, she knew she could fix herself. She could have fun today. She had to learn to calm down. 

She took a few deep breaths. She felt herself calm, her lungs filled with air and pushed it out, her heartbeat slowing down. Momi closed her eyes, leaning on the door. She was overthinking everything. She didn’t have to take everything so literally. 

And yet, Momi’s moment of calm was broken by the sound of a fist knocking on the door. Her heart almost burst from her chest and she felt her hands shake. 

“Occupied.” Was all she could say. Maybe no one had seen her come in here, it was probably just someone who needed to use the bathroom. Momi was sorry, but they were going to have to wait.

“Yea, I know. I ain’t stupid. Now open up. Unless you’re actually using the bathroom. In which case. Uh. Dont open up.”

It was Guzma. Momi shakily grabbed the door handle and twisted it, opening the door slightly.

“...Yes?” She asked

“Sorry, kid. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad out there, I was just kidding around. I forgot about that time I upset you before. I’ll try to remember that uh.. You don’t like that kind of stuff. I’m the big bad Guzma and all, but I’ll do my best. Now, you gonna get back out here with everyone else or do I gotta drag you out there?”

Momi felt kind of weird. This genuine kindness coming from the Team Skull Leader made her feel _uncomfortable._

“..Could you.. Maybe… not call me ‘kid’ please?” Momi asked, still keeping the door only cracked. He shifted his weight to one of his feet, his hands tucked in his pockets. He closed his eyes, thinking for a moment.  
“Quite a tough request you got for me there, k--” He stopped himself. “I’ll give it a shot. But we gotta find you a nick name eventually, got it?” He grinned. “Now, one more thing.” He pulled something out of his pocket. 

“It’s my birthday, and typically people receive gifts on their birthday, but I decided I’m gonna let you have this.” He handed over a pokeball. Momi took it in her hand, looking down at it before looking back at him. She opened the door farther. 

“What is this?” She quietly asked.

“Its the pokemon you and that other girl brought in the other day- The Absol. Koa mentioned you only had one pokemon, so here’s your second. Now you can boast to the others about how Guzma himself gave you your very own pokemon. Now, are you gonna come have some fun? Or am I _really_ gonna have to drag you?”

Momi didn’t like the sound of being dragged out of this bathroom. So she nodded and stepped out.

But Momi also didn’t like the sound of using this Absol.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> momi just wants to be away from golisopod

Chapter 14

 

Momi soon found that once she loosened up a bit, she had a lot of fun. Although a bit of her time was spent dodging Golisopod’s dangerous hugs, the rest of it was spent celebrating with the others. They’d brought candy, cake, and some ice cream. Although the mansion had no refrigerator, some grunts had brought out their ice pokemon to keep the ice cream cold. 

Momi leaned against the wall for a bit, taking small bites of strawberry ice cream to savor the flavor for a bit. Her parents never let her have anything like this. She’d had strawberries before, but the ice cream didn’t really taste like them. It had its own distinct taste, but she decided she loved it. Meanwhile several of the grunts were presenting Guzma with gifts. Guzma was seated on a table, leaning back on his arms with several gifts he’d already received around him. Although he was giving off his usual air of confidence and superiority, he was genuinely grateful for each gift and made sure each grunt understood that.

Gifts. Momi looked down at the pokeball she’d stuck in her pocket. Why had Guzma decided to give her this absol? A genuine act of good will? Even if he hadn’t meant any harm, Momi was really worried about using it. It felt wrong- She’d taken this pokemon from an old man- She’d _wounded_ it. 

Momi soon reminded herself of her new policy. She was going to stop sitting around and thinking of negative things, right? She couldn’t sit there and drive herself nuts. Right. She should focus on the party.

She watched Guzma opening a rather poorly wrapped gift, a grunt grinning with anticipation as he revealed the gift. It was a Buginium Z. Guzma stared at it for a second, as if the green crystal held deeper meaning. He looked at the crystal like he was seeing something so much more than just a shard, and honestly, Momi wanted to know what it was he saw. The other grunts didn’t seem to notice his expression change so much, since he didn’t leave it like that long. He grinned once more and thanked the grunt before stashing it away with his other gifts. Although, he slid this one out of sight, as if putting it out of his sight would keep it from his mind. 

The gift giving had finally come to an end, and Guzma hopped off the table and headed over to the cake. He began cutting it, dishing out pieces of the cake. There were so many grunts, and only one cake, he had to cut the slices pretty small. Momi didn’t really eat birthday cake on her birthdays- She could recall one time her parents allowed her this luxury, but it was only a slice. 

Guzma looked around the room to ensure that everyone had gotten a slice, before he spotted Momi pretending to be a wallflower. He took the last piece, and stepped over to offer it to her. 

Momi blinked. The last piece? He hadn’t even had one. It was _his_ birthday after all. Honestly, she’d never imagined the Team Skull leader to be so considerate. This wasn’t really the most shocking development for Momi after her interaction with him in the bathroom. She felt like her entire preconceived ideas about the group may have been wrong. Of course, they were thieves and such, but maybe they weren’t all so bad after all.

Momi stopped her thoughts for a moment.

_They were thieves and such._

Now, Momi was a thief. She was a Team Skull member. It was time to stop separating herself from them.

She turned her attention to Guzma and gave a slight shake of her head and put a hand up to turn down his offer. She would have said something, but she couldn’t find the courage within herself to speak to him. She just kind of hoped he’d go away. But of course the persistent leader refused.

“Come on, you don’t like cake? Seriously? First bug types, now this.” He laughed rather lightly this time, trying to make his joke come off less harshly. Momi seriously appreciated it. 

The mood had been lightened slightly, and Momi felt better about talking. “It’s your birthday, and that’s the last piece. You should eat your own birthday cake, that’s kind of how it’s supposed to work, I think.” Momi gave a slight shrug. Guzma rolled his eyes. 

“I’m offerin’ you a piece of cake. If I really wanted it, you think I would’a offered it?” Guzma raised an eyebrow. Momi blinked. So he didn’t want cake? He was the one making fun of her for not wanting cake. Although she figured it’d be in her benefit to not argue with him, and took the cake after saying a quiet thank you. He grinned and turned away to return to the festivities. Momi grabbed a plastic fork from a nearly empty cardboard box and picked off a small piece. 

She took a bite and nearly melted. The cake was overly sweet, and a little dry, but damn if Momi didn’t love it. It’d been a long time since she’d eaten something like this, and she was kind of glad that Guzma had somewhat pressured her into eating it. Momi noticed Koa squeezing through the crowd of grunts to get to Momi. 

“You doing alright?” Koa asked, sticking her hands in her pockets. Momi gave a nod. “I heard that Guzma gave you the absol, huh?” Momi once again nodded and pulled the ball out of her pocket.

“I really wanted it, I’ll be honest. But I’m glad that you have a second pokemon now. If you need help training it, I don’t mind lending a hand sometimes.” Koa shrugged. Momi could tell in her voice she was disappointed that she didn’t receive the pokemon. Momi would gladly hand it over, but in some way that felt like disrespecting Guzma. And while the guy was the leader of a thieving gang, he’d been a pretty nice guy to Momi. She kind of felt like he deserved her respect now. 

“But uh, Guzma wanted me to tell you something.” Koa scratched the back of her head, glancing off to the side. “He wants you to talk to him later. As in, sometime after the party you need to head to his room.” And then Momi’s heart dropped. That was somewhat frightening. What was he going to say? What was he going to die? He had no reason to need to talk to her. Did she do something wrong? Was he going to kick her out?

“Woah, Woah, chill out.” Koa shook her head. “You look like you’re going to puke. It’s fine. I don’t understand why you’re always so jumpy, Momi. It’s not like he’s going to hurt you.” Koa ran a hand through her hair and rolled her eyes at Momi’s anxiety. Momi knew Koa was right, and she knew she was overreacting. And yet she couldn’t get her heart to stop beating a mile a minute.

“Either way, you don’t have to worry about that until later.” Koa put a hand on Momi’s shoulder reassuringly. “Alright?” Momi nodded, taking a deep breath. Koa turned and walked back to the group. 

Guzma sat on the table he had been on and laughed along as some of the skull grunts began playing a game of Twister. It was a mess of complaining, laughing, and tangled Skull necklaces.

She saw the grunt who had helped Momi dye her hair along with Koa, what had his name been? Jon! Jon was contorted awfully to reach the different colors, he looked like he might snap. Momi laughed a little at the dumb grin on his face. He noticed Momi looking at him, and grinned over at her. Although, his lack of focus caused his limbs to give out. The entire mass of team skull grunts all fell onto the mat, grumbling and groaning as they all untangled themselves and got back up.

Momi looked to Guzma, expecting him to laugh or do _something._ However, the Skull leader seemed to be in deep thought, looking at the group of grunts. Was he looking at one in particular?

After another awful debacle of twister, the grunts began cleaning up. Guzma stuffed the Buginium Z in his jacket pocket, and began heading up the stairs. A few grunts began taking the gifts and moving them up to his room for him. Although on the way up, Guzma still seemed in deep thought. Momi watched him as he left. 

Jon waltzed on over to Momi, the same dumb grin on his face. “Hi Momi! Are you still liking the pink hair?”

Momi couldn’t help but smile. “Of course I am!” She ran her fingers through it. “It’s so much better than that boring old brown, you know? I kind of wish I had gotten it blue sometimes, though.”

“I haven’t seen a girl around here get the blue, that would really be astonishing.” He grinned. “But I definitely think you could pull it off. You could pull pretty much anything off, in my opinion.” He shifted his weight nervously. Momi blinked. He was complimenting her? Momi felt slightly uncomfortable about it- but it wasn’t like he was being creepy or anything. He was just trying to be sweet. Maybe there was a quick way she could get out of this conversation.

“Oh-- goodness- I just remembered!” Momi looked to the stairs. “Guzma wanted to see me. I’ll talk to you later, alright?” Momi gave a small smile before heading for the stairs. Jon nodded and waved goodbye to Momi as she hurried up them. She quickly made her way past the stupid Skull grunt guarding the broken window, balanced her way on the wooden planks into the other side of the building, and headed for the door to his room.

She stood at the door for a second and took a deep breath. The last time she knocked on this door, Guzma had yelled at her. Of course this time it wasn’t 3am, so her chances of that had to be significantly lower, yes? She couldn’t help but worry about it. And she couldn’t help but worry over what he wanted to talk to her about. Had he called her to his room to reprimand her?

After standing at his door for an embarrassingly long amount of time, she finally knocked. 

“Come in.” She heard his voice from the inside. She slowly pushed the door open, stepping into the doorway. He was sitting in his little throne, one hand on the laptop in front of him. He looked over at her and closed the laptop.

“Close the door behind you.” He said. _Shit._

Momi closed the door and then turned back to look at him. 

“Momi, right?” He asked, and she nodded. “Why are you always so nervous? And by that, I’m asking you to tell me,” He paused, leaning back in his chair, “your story.” He looked down at her. “Tell me what brought you to Team Skull, and where you come from.”

Momi blinked. She.. she hadn’t expected this. But she didn't really want to talk about it. She didn’t feel like going over all of her awful memories, but it didn’t sound like he was giving her a choice. She shifted her weight uncomfortably. What were the chances he’d get mad if she said no? 

“Well.. uhm.. That’s kind of personal.” She said. Perhaps if she didn’t say no directly, it wouldn’t be a problem. He nodded, clasping his hands together.

“Yeah, I know. But you’re one of us now. And you still seem so hesitant to _be_ one of us. I told you that if you were going to be a part of Team Skull, you were going to have to be committed. Koa told me how hesitant you were to steal that Absol. I had her take you along just so we could see how you’d do.” He paused. 

“I’m not here to yell at you, k-... Momi. I just want to understand what happened.”

This was still super invasive. She didn’t like it. She didn’t want to sit here and tell him all of the personal details about her life, he hardly even knew her! He didn’t really have the right to all of that information. Why did he seem to demand it? Momi wasn’t sure what to say. So she just remained silent. 

“Momi, just talk to me. Talk to me like you’re getting it off your chest.” He leaned forward a bit, resting his chin in his hand.

That seemed.. To change things a little bit. 

“Have a seat.” He shrugged, motioning to his unmade bed. Momi didn’t really like the way this was looking, but it was better than to stand the entire time. So she took a seat on the edge of the bed. 

“...So, you want to know how I got here?” Momi asked quietly. Guzma nodded. “..My parents have always been strict.” She started. “They hardly let me out of the house for anything other than school- even as a child. We lived on Melemele island, right by the ocean. But they didn’t even let me go to the sand. I didn’t get to go outside. I sat inside, in my room, and I studied.”

“For the first while, when I was a kid, I didn’t really mind all that much. Back then, my parents were… different. We played games together, we watched movies together, and they read me books about pokemon. It.. It was fun. I felt like they really loved me, and.. I loved them too.”

Spilling all of her personal information to someone she hardly knew made her want to throw up, but at the same time, she’d never really talked about this before. So maybe getting it off of her chest would… help her move on. 

“But they changed. I don’t know what changed, but they changed.” Momi looked down at the ground. “Suddenly their keeping me inside was different. At first, it felt like they wanted to protect me. But then it felt like I was being.. _caged._ I was being judged by a number. My grades. I was nothing but that number.. And if that number fell lower than what they wanted..” Momi stopped. 

Guzma raised an eyebrow, waiting for Momi to finish her sentence. But Momi didn’t want to go on after that. She had to admit, she was feeling better after getting some of that out. But the words that came next were going to hurt. 

“So I ran away. I ran into a guy named Gladion, and he told me to com here.” Momi cut it short.

Guzma leaned back in his chair again.  
He looked down at Momi. “I want you to know something, Momi.” He paused, closing his eyes for a second. “You aren’t a number here. We work together. It’s us against the world. It’s us against a cruel, hateful, disgusting, and unfair world. You see, Momi? The world has taken so much from us.” He got up to his feet.

“It takes, and takes, and takes. But it never gave us anything, did it?”

Momi took a moment to think on this. She.. She knew that she probably shouldn’t be agreeing with him. But.. somewhere inside her, she felt like he was right somehow. The world had given her nothing. It took from her ever since she was little. But.. now that she was apart of something- around people who cared- she felt like she could stand up and do something about it.

“That’s what Team Skull is, Momi.”

Guzma walked over to her, hands in his pockets. “We’re all together. We all got each other’s backs. Sure, we steal pokemon. And I think that’s one of your main things you gotta get over. We’re kind of thieves, sure. But we’re just taking back from the same world that took from us. An eye for an eye, Momi.”

An eye for an eye…?

“It isn’t fair for everyone else to get such perfect lives. They don’t worry about money. They don’t worry about whether or not they’ll have dinner that night. They.. They don’t worry whether or not they’ll be going to bed with new bruises.”

Guzma’s fists clenched as he spoke.

“Why do we have to worry, when they don’t?”

He took a deep breath, and let it out with a sigh. “My point is. You’re one of us, Momi. We’re going to take care of you.”

Momi said nothing. She didn’t know what to say. This was a lot to process. A lot of different ideas to consider.

“..You can go.” Guzma turned his back to Momi, and headed back up to his throne. But he didn’t seem to want to turn around until she had left the room. She quickly stood up, and headed over to the door. She opened it, and looked one last time at the Skull leader before exiting and hurrying to her room.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Violence in this chapter
> 
> also my interpretation of rock throw is bad lmaoo my bad u guys   
> i wasnt sure how a little pupper is supposed to throw a rock

Chapter 15

Momi didn’t expect anything else. Another night of uncomfortable staring at the wall and contemplation lead to a morning of bloodshot eyes and fatigue. Momi felt dead. She spent the entire night wondering about everything Guzma had said to her. Was it really okay for her to do the things Team Skull stood for? Was theft okay in her circumstances? Guzma had kind of made some sense. But some part of it still didn’t feel right. Momi felt as though a weight had been lifted off her shoulders once she spoke about her past. Guzma was the only person she’d told about it though, and she was afraid of the power that gave him over her. He could do whatever he wanted with the information, and with Momi’s limited knowledge of his nature, she had no idea if he would do anything with it. 

But the only bad thing he’d ever done to her so far was yell at her that one time, and he had apologized for it- and made up for it. He’d given her a pokemon, he consoled her when he had upset her. He’d even stopped calling her kid at her request. He did slip up a few times, but the leader had cared enough to correct himself. Momi could tell that he really and truly cared about each Skull Member. He took the time to open each gift yesterday, and he thanked each person individually. He’d given Momi the last slice of cake and had none himself. If he seemed this generous, why was he regarded as such a cruel human being? How did people see him so bad? Did they not see the kindness that Momi did?

Momi paced around the mansion a bit, saying good morning to a few grunts and looking for something to eat. The general rule of thumb was to fend for yourself, but it wasn’t too hard to scrounge something up. She bummed half a sandwich off of Jon, and sat outside. The rain was a bit lighter today. She sat on the steps of the mansion, under the protection of the roof, and watched the rain drops fall to the ground. It didn’t have quite the same effect as watching the waves of the ocean, but it would do for now. Momi took a deep breath of the chilled air and looked down at her reflection.

Man, the Momi who lived with her parents wouldn’t recognize herself. She couldn’t believe she was looking at herself. The pink hair, the beanie, the tank top. Even the Skull Necklace dangling on her chest. The rockruff and absol balls in her pockets. The absol. She pulled out the ball and looked at it. She hadn’t let the pokemon out yet, while she let Rockruff out every night. Koa had given her a pokedex and showed her how to access the moves her pokemon had. She pulled it out and tried to remember how. It took a bit of fiddling, but she finally got to the moves her Rockruff could use. Tackle, Leer, Bite, and Sand Attack. She really needed to practice battling with it.

She did need to. She she was going to. It was time for her to stop sitting around and thinking about what she was going to do, what she needed to do, and what she had done, and start _doing._ So Momi got to her feet, stretched, and finished the rest of her sandwich before heading inside. Luckily, she ran into Koa quickly.

“Koa, will you help me out?” Momi asked. The tall girl blinked and looked down at Momi.

“Yeah, sure? Whatcha need?” Koa stuck a hand on her hip and pushed her hair out of her face. Momi was super jealous of Koa’s wavy hair. 

“I want to get better at battling. So I’m asking you to come outside and battle me.” Momi said rather determinedly. Koa looked kind of shocked, but then she gave a wicked grin. 

“I won’t hold back, you know. If we battle, I _will_ give it my all. Even if that means crushing your poor little Rockruff.” That kind of scared Momi a bit, but this was not time for backing down. She was going to give it her all. 

“Of course.” Momi nodded, keeping her chin up. She turned, and headed outside. She heard Koa’s footsteps as she followed her. Momi stepped out into the rain and adjusted her beanie. The rain ran down Momi’s skin, and she had to admit, it felt nice. It was a good temperature. It was cool, but not cold enough to make her shiver. And with her heartbeat starting to speed up with anticipation, it calmed Mom and countered her rising body temperature.

Koa pulled out a pokeball, and Momi grabbed her Rockruff’s ball. 

“You ready?” Koa asked. Momi gave a nod, and Koa sent out her Murkrow.

The battle that ensued was hardly fair. Every attack from the Murkrow sent Momi’s poor Rockruff flying. The tiny dog pokemon whined and yelped in pain. But it kept getting up. Momi just wished it would stay down. But after every attack the creature refused to stay down. It had landed a few hits on the Murkrow, but otherwise it was fine. The Rockruff sustained another hit, and shakily got to its feet. It looked back at Momi and waited for directions.

Momi didn’t know what to do. Why was Rockruff so persistent? This battle should be over. Rockruff had taken way too much damage. But Momi could see a determined look in the tiny pokemon’s eyes. It gave a bark, as if to hurry Momi along with her directions. Momi snapped back to reality and went through the move set of her pokemon in her head before giving Rockruff instructions to use tackle on the flying type before it.

The Murkrow countered the pokemon’s atatck, sending Rockruff to the ground _again._ It was honestly getting super repetitive. Momi regretted this. Her poor pokemon needed to be healed, but it still wasn’t getting up. Even as the rain poured down on the group, the Rockruff got back to its feet. Its fur was covered in mud. It shook itself off. But this time, it didn’t even wait for Momi to say anything.

It leapt forward, releasing what was supposed to be a fierce bark- but was really more cute than anything- and dug its paws into the ground. Rocks from the area began to shake, moving towards each other like magnets. They came together to form a rather large rock-- one much larger than the Murkrow. The combined giant rock then propelled itself at the Murkrow. Momi glanced down at her pokedex, which was now updating itself on the Rockruff’s information.

This move was apparently called Rock Throw. Her pokemon had learned a new move. All on its own. Momi honestly couldn’t feel any more prouder. Koa looked absolutely terrified for her murkrow, however. The rocks soon left their shape, revealing Koa’s rather dazed Murkrow. It was fine-- but it didn’t look to be getting up anytime soon. Koa sighed and returned her Murkrow to its ball.

“I totally would have won if your Rockruff hadn’t learned Rock Throw. That was pretty cool, though, I gotta admit.” Koa looked away, seeming rather irritated that she had lost to Momi. Momi couldn’t care less right now. She scooped her tired Rockruff into her arms-- not minding that it was covered in mud. She scratched behind its ears and placed a kiss on the top of its head. 

“You did amazing! Oh my god!” She laughed, the pokemon licking her face and barking at her. Koa turned and headed towards a run down Pokemon Center in the town, without another word to Momi. Momi supposed a part of her did feel guilty- but that couldn’t overcome the pride that Momi felt right now. She also began heading to the Pokemon Center. After getting some aid for her pokemon, she walked back towards the mansion. She pretty much ran inside-- finding herself bumping into something. Well, someone. 

She looked up to find herself face to face with the Skull leader himself. He backed up a bit, raising an eyebrow at her in annoyance. He didn’t say anything, and pushed past her to head out the door. She muttered a small apology and watched him leave. 

She still had her rockruff in her arms, still petting it and giving it as much affection as she could. She ignored her rather brief encounter with Guzma, and headed back towards her room. But on the way, she was stopped by Plumeria. 

Plumeria looked down at Momi, arms crossed. “Momi, ain’t it?” Momi nodded in response. Plumeria closed her eyes for a second, nodding. “Yeah, so I got somethin’ for you to do. I need you to head out towards Akala Island- around Route 6. We sent a girl out there a few days ago but she didn’t come back. I want you to see if you can find her, or find out if anyone knows what happened to her.” Plumeria gave a yawn. “Got it?” Plumeria asked.

Momi nodded. She’d have to look at a map to figure out where all that was, but she was sure she could figure something out. But this task made her rather uneasy. If she couldn’t find this girl, then what could have happened to her? That’s what scared Momi. But now she had Rockruff to protect her. So things were going to be okay. She had no doubt about that.

“Good. Now get on it.” Plumeria walked past Momi and went about her day. Momi returned her pokemon to its ball, and began looking around for a map. She ran into Jon, and promptly asked him for one. He thought for a second, and grinned, before pulling one out of his back pocket. 

“You’re lucky I had it on me, I was just about to head out.” He said. Momi looked through it, getting a general idea of the area of Akala-- and where she’d be heading to, before handing it back to Jon.

“Thank you.” Momi smiled. Jon blinked, and looked down at the map. He handed it back to Momi.

“Why don’t you keep it?” Jon gave a wide smile. “I’m sure you need it more than I do.” Momi looked down at the map, and thought about it for a second. Then she took it, and returned the smile.

“Thank you. That means a lot. I ought to head out now-- It was nice talking to you.” Momi gave a small wave before heading back outside. She stuffed the map in her pocket before pulling out her ride pager and calling a Charizard. She tapped her foot as she waited, looking at the puddles in the ground. She watched each ripple that appeared, watched ripples crash into each other and fade out. She had begun staring off into space, and was rather startled when the Charizard landed near her. She hurried over to it and patted it before clambering onto it’s back. It took off immediately, and flew slowly as it waited for Momi to give it direction.

Once she’d fumbled with her map for a while, she pointed the Charizard in the direction of Akala. After that, Momi took the moment to rest. She looked down at the water below her and watched the waves. She spotted a Milotic swimming underneath the surface. Its graceful body snaked through the water gracefully. The waves on the surface were rather harsh, crashing upon one each other in loud splashes. But the Milotic continued gracefully, unwavered by the dangerous waters. Momi envied it. No matter what it was like on the surface, it continued to swim. And with such fluidity and grace. Soon enough though, the Milotic swam deeper and left Momi’s sight. She looked up at the clouds above. THe light was obscured by dark, threatening clouds. Momi urged the Charizard to fly a little faster. If it started to storm, she would need to get out of the sky immediately. The dragon type obliged and sped its pace up. 

The wind beat at Momi’s face, her hair flowing behind her as they raced for Akala island. 

She directed the dragon to land in route 6, and slid off of it. Her legs felt weak, and she had to sit down for a moment. The beast didn’t even look back as it left, not even expecting a Poke bean. Momi really wished she had some, these pokemon seriously deserved them for taking her everywhere.

It began to rain slightly, but there were still people on the route. That was good. She could ask around. She looked behind her. There was a ranch not too far away-- SHe could ask there later if she didn’t find anything here. But it was probably best to check here first. She began walking, and came across a small child. But they didn’t know anything. Momi advised the child to go home since the weather was probably going to get bad, but the child just laughed and said they liked the rain. 

Next up was a Pokemon breeder, but when they locked eyes, he demanded a battle. Momi had been told by some of the other grunts that this is the way it was out in the real world-- but Momi didn’t believe it. She gave a sigh, and pulled out her rockruff. Thankfully, the Breeder’s pokemon weren’t all too difficult to beat, but it left her rockruff already feeling tired. She didn’t have any potions on her-- she didn’t have that much money left and she was only planning to use it for an emergency. But the breeder had paid up a little when she won. After the battle, she asked him if he’d seen another girl dressed like her around, but he shook his head. She was a little surprised he hadn’t reacted to her outfit-- as she was clearly a Team Skull Member, but the next person she faced did.

She stepped up to a younger girl. She had blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail, and was trying to get reception on her phone. Momi slowly walked up to her, a little nervous. Unlike the breeder, or the little kid, this girl didn’t seem to want to be bothered. But Momi had a task to finish, so she stuck a hand on her hip and put her chin up as she walked over.

“Excuse me,” Momi spoke. The girl narrowed her eyes as soon as she noticed Momi.

“Ugh. Disgusting. Team Skull.” She rolled her eyes. “You better not start any crap. I am not handing any of my pokemon over to someone like you.” She rolled her eyes.

Momi took a deep breath. She didn’t want any trouble, she literally just wanted to ask a question and this girl was already being awful. She understood her hatred of Team Skull, but Momi hadn’t even done anything to this girl. 

“I’m just wondering if you’ve seen another girl around here wearing a Team Skull outfit.” Momi spoke calmly, but she could feel her heartbeat start to speed up. This girl’s anger was making her kind of nervous. 

She rolled her eyes. “Why would I tell you? Scram.” She returned to fiddling with her phone.

Momi took a deep breath. “Please, I’m just looking for her. She’s a friend of mine.” Momi didn’t mind telling such a small lie-- it didn’t even matter. Friend or not, she knew she had to find this girl.

“Fine, you know what? No. I haven’t seen her.” She didn’t even look up from her phone. Momi grit her teeth. This was starting to piss her off. Momi was being polite and courteous, yet this girl just continued looking at her phone and disrespecting Momi. She was probably even lying to Momi. Momi’s hand went to the pokeball resting in her pocket, containing her rockruff. She could destroy this girl, right? She could totally beat her. This girl probably sucked at battling-- that is, if she had any pokemon. If she didn’t, then Momi wouldn’t do anything.

No, even if she had pokemon, Momi wasn’t going to do anything. Picking a fight with this annoying girl wasn’t going to help. Considering no one else on the route had seen the girl, she had no grounds to suspect that this particular girl was lying to her. This particular girl just happened to be an asshole. 

Momi turned away from the girl and began walking further down the route. It was raining a lot harder now. Momi’s clothes and hair were soaked, and she was starting to shiver. But she didn’t want to go back to Po Town without any information. It wasn’t even out of fear- Momi genuinely wanted to complete the task given to her. She wanted to make Plumeria happy. She wanted to do this for the sake of the team. For Team Skull. For the people that… were making her happy.

Momi wasn’t sure when exactly she had started to have such a change of heart. She still didn’t like thievery, but each Team Skull Member was so sweet. And she knew each of them had their own stories, just like Momi. She felt welcome among them. Maybe not around Guzma. But around the regular grunts. Guzma was nice and all, but he still made her rather uncomfortable with his presence. 

As she continued to walk, she saw a figure standing ahead. She squinted, but she couldn’t make out too much through all the rain. As they got closer, a second figure appeared as the first raised their hand. A pokemon? Had the person just brought out their pokemon?

She moved closer until she could make out some details about the person. It was a guy somewhat around her age. He wore a hoodie to keep out the rain, and beside him stood a machoke. 

A machoke. Seeing the pokemon brought back a lot in a single moment. A lot of fear. A lot of sadness. Did he want a battle? Momi didn’t know if her little rockruff could stand up to such a large pokemon.. Momi began straying to the side of the path in hopes that she would just pass the person. She didn’t even want to ask them about the missing grunt. She didn’t want the chance of having to battle that Machoke. But to Momi’s despair, the person also strayed to the side of the path, showing that they were intent on meeting with Momi. 

Once they were a rather close distance to each other, Momi stopped, and the guy before her stopped as well. SHe could make out many more details now. He had dark brown hair and caramel colored skin. He just looked like any regular guy, honestly. His hair was short and choppy and his eyebrows were bushy and messy. 

“You the Team Skull member skulking around here? Leave.” He said, glaring daggers at Momi. Her heartbeat began racing. Her hands shaking. Okay, so this is what was going on. SHe was getting told to go. But she wasn’t going to leave. She hadn’t done anything wrong! But Momi couldn’t find the courage within herself to tell him no, to stand up for herself. At least, she couldn’t find it vocally. So she stayed where she was and said nothing and hoped the message that she wasn’t leaving got across. 

“If you don’t leave, you’re seriously in for it. Get out. We don’t want scum like you around our town!” He stepped forward, and his Machoke stepped closer. Momi blinked, and began reevaluating her options. Fighting that Machoke would be a serious problem. Maybe she’d have to bow out… the others would understand, right?

She didn’t even have time to decide her next move before the Machoke lunged. Its giant fist smacked right into Momi’s face, sending Momi backwards. The pain burned like fire in her cheek. It was awful, searing pain that extended through her jaw and cheekbone. She wanted to scream. She’d fallen onto the ground, into some mud. How wonderful. The mud was the last of her worries as she heard the Machoke coming back. Tears streamed down her face and mingled with the rain as she fumbled for her pokeball. She grabbed her Rockruff’s ball and quickly brought it out. It looked around, and once it got a grasp of the situation, it rushed to Momi’s defense. It tried using Bite, latching its teeth around the leg of the Machoke, but the Machoke kicked the pokemon off. The Rockruff was flung across the ground, whining and whimpering as it hit the ground. 

“R.. Rockruff!” Momi’s eyes widened as she watched it. She waited for it to get up. It kept getting up against Murkrow. Why wasn’t it getting up now? She fumbled in her pocket for Absol’s ball. She didn’t know much about the Absol, but she prayed that it would help her. She got ready to release it, but the ball was knocked from her hand by the fighting type. Momi reached in it’s direction as if she could magically bring it back to her. But her arm was snatched by the Machoke. The Machoke pulled her off the ground, and flung Momi across the ground like it had done to Rockruff.

“This is what scum like you deserve. Stealing pokemon from people who love them, beating trainers and taking all their money. You even ran a town of people out for your own benefit! What’s wrong with you?” The trainer spoke, stepping forward as the Machoke did. The Machoke prepared another attack. Momi lay on the ground, her eyes closed. She couldn’t watch. Her entire body burned with awful pain. Tears kept coming to her eyes and running down her face. 

The sound of snarling and loud, deeper barks snapped Momi out of it. She opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar pokemon standing defensively in front of her. Lyncanroc. It was a midday evolution Lycanroc. Momi looked around for her Rockruff. Could it be? Did her Rockruff evolve? Her eyes widened as the Lycanroc tackled the Machoke. It stumbled backwards, trying to pry Lycanroc’s teeth off of it. But Lycanrock tore into the Machoke’s flesh and drew blood. It finally backed away and snarled at the Machoke.

Momi smiled. They had a fighting chance. Lycanroc could definitely stand up to the might of the Machoke. The trainer looked surprised. Momi slowly brought herself to her feet, ignoring the disgusting mud that clung to her skin and clothes. 

“Lycanroc! Rock Throw!” Momi commanded. The pokemon gave a loud bark of understanding and began to use the move. This time, instead of rocks collectively forming together, a nearby boulder was hurled at the Machoke. Momi grinned. She was ready to fight back. She was ready to beat the snot out of this stupid Machoke and it’s stupid trainer. She would show them. She would show them how strong she really was, and they would think again before challenging a Team Skull Member for no reason. 

If only Momi had remembered that Machoke is resistant to rock type moves. 

It was hardly affected, knocking the boulder away from itself. Lycanroc was already tired. The Machoke hit earlier had really taken the wind out of it. And the Machoke moved swiftly, using Karate Chop on Lycanroc. She’d seen that move from the Machoke her parents owned. 

Lycanroc yelped in pain, whining and stumbling. Then Machoke, with a mighty swing of its leg, knocked Lycanroc even farther than before. Momi’s eyes widened. As quickly as it came, her fighting chance was dashed to pieces. The Machoke walked forward, towering over Momi. She took a step back, staring up at the fighting type. No. No. No. Momi screamed, and turned to run, but the Machoke threw a punch, knocking her in the side. She fell right back into the mud, a searing pain burning through her abdomen and spreading through the rest of her body. 

She couldn’t get back up. She only prayed that it left. She closed her eyes, feeling her hot tears roll down her cheek as her body throbbed in tremendous pain. 

“Please.. No..” She whispered, hearing the footsteps of the Machoke grow closer. She stayed still, though. It felt like years passed in this moment as she waited to see what it was going to do. She was done for.

But thankfully, the pokemon walked away, the trainer with it. She listened and thanked anything and everything that they had left. She opened her eyes and blinked away some dirt. Something stood not too far away, watching.

A pokemon? She’d surely never seen it before. It had a black torso, and seemed to rest within a pink shell. A part of the shell rested on its head, and pink hair came out from under the shell. It’s eyes were large, and a beautiful shade of blue. It stared at Momi with a look.. Of concern.

Momi couldn’t keep her eyes open much longer. She couldn’t get up. She couldn’t move. She closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of rain falling on her body. Soon enough, she wasn’t focusing on anything. Sleep overtook her though she was unwilling to its embrace. As Momi drifted into unconsciousness, Lycanroc dragged its way back to Momi and curled up next to her body.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello yes pls give me time btw to flesh out Guzma's character because he is not all sunshines and cuteness i promise u lmao  
> I'm just slow af at character development  
> hope y'all like this chapter!!!  
> Also! We're almost to 1000 hits, and I'm gonna do something special once we get there!!!!

Chapter 16 

She felt herself being carried in strong arms. She would have opened her eyes immediately to see what was going on, but she was too tired to be alarmed at the moment. She just calmly paid attention to the gentle sensation of the footsteps that carried her. As she started to wake up a little further, she gathered the strength to open her eyes. But not yet. The realization of the danger she was in hit her. She felt her heartbeat begin to race. Who was carrying her? What if it was the one who attacked her? She was so dead. Okay. This was her chance. To them, she was still asleep. If she immediately attacked as she ‘woke up’ then she would totally have a shot at getting away. This was it. She would have to put every ounce of her energy into this, it was her last shot. 

She bit her lip, and then snapped her eyes open. She threw a punch at the nearest thing she saw, rolling out of the person’s arms and onto the ground where she scrambled to get back to her feet. This wasn’t much help though. She cried out in pain, her sore muscles reignited in agony. 

To her surprise, the one carrying her wasn’t a person at all. She received a shrill and excited greeting from Guzma’s giant Golisopod. Momi looked up, her eyes wide and her body shaking slightly from all the surprise. Guzma stood behind it, his arms crossed. He looked at Momi like she was crazy, and he had every reason to. Momi could almost laugh if she weren’t about to pass out.

“Guzma?” Momi looked to him, then back to the happy Golisopod, and then back to Guzma one more time. He put one one of his stupid grins, closing his eyes and nodding in his own signature way. 

“Who else? Of course it’s me. But more importantly, what happened?” His face contorted into a much more serious expression. His Golisopod looked at him and saw the expression on his face, and then tried to mimick it. Momi thought it was kind of hilarious. 

“I was.. Plu...P..” Momi stuttered slightly. She hadn’t realized it until this moment, but she was kind of nervous in front of Guzma. Especially right now. She looked down at herself. She was covered in mud, her nose had bled slightly, and a few bruises littered her skin-- especially on her face. She looked an absolute mess, and all she wanted now was a shower. She had to stop, and she knew she needed to calm down. She took a deep breath and clasped her hands together nervously.

“Plumeria told me to come looking for a girl who came here and never returned, but.. When I did, I was attacked.”

“By a pokemon?” Guzma raised an eyebrow. “Surely you didn’t let a lil ratatta or anything get you, right?”

“..Something like that.” Momi dodged the answer for a moment. She didn’t want to straight up tell him that she’d gotten her butt kicked. Awfully. 

“Something like that?” He repeated the phrase. “Now come on, you better tell me what happened before I get pissed off.” He tapped his foot. He was getting visibly irritated, and that was not a game that Momi wanted to play. She paused, thinking over how she wanted to go about telling him what happened. Her mind was foggy right now anyways, all Momi could really focus on was how badly she wanted a shower. 

“..Some guy with a Machoke attacked me.” Very eloquent. Perfect. 

“What?” Guzma’s voice raised. “Like, with his pokemon?” He glared at Momi, but she tried to assume that the anger was directed at the man who attacked her, and not Momi herself. Probably. To his question, she gave a small nod. 

He sighed. “Let’s.. Let’s just head back to Po Town.” He said. “You have your ride pager?” Momi nodded, and began digging through her pockets. Her absol had been returned to her pocket-- and her Lycancroc’s ball. But she couldn’t find much else.. Her money.. Her ride pager.. Her dex. Gone. Her eyes widened. Had someone robbed her? While she was unconscious? Jesus christ!

“..On second thought.. I think someone took it..” Momi’s voice got quieter as the sentence went along. She felt awful. She felt useless. Not only had she lost a fight, not only had she failed at completing her task, and not only had she been robbed-- Guzma was there to find out. He got to see her in all of her shame, and she absolutely hated it. Not like he hadn’t seen her at one of her lows before, he had helped her come out of the bathroom at his own party that one time after she’d gotten nervous. But this was even worse. Now she had dedicated a good portion of her mindset to Team Skull. She had felt much better now that she had something to work towards-- something to work for. She had people that she knew would support her and now she had let them down. And she’d let them down and looked pathetic while she did so. 

Guzma sighed. “That seriously sucks. I’m gonna be honest. I wish ya’d done a better job at this whole mission thing, but maybe we shouldn’t have sent you without Koa for something like this. We’re gonna deal with this guy though, after you tell me everything that happened.” He pulled out his own ride pager. 

“Guess we’re just gonna have to share, Momi.” He returned Golisopod to its ball and used his ride pager to call a charizard. Share? Oh jeez. She was in for a wild ride. A moment of agonizing awkward waiting passed before the Charizard landed before them with a thump. Guzma stood there, looking at Momi expectantly. Did he want her to get on the charizard first? Oh god. Momi took a deep breath and carefully climbed onto the back of the Dragon type. Would it be able to hold Guzma and Momi? Guzma was kind of a big guy. He towered over Momi with his impressive height- even when he slouched. Whether or not this was going to work, Momi knew one thing. It was going to be ridiculously embarrassing. He climbed onto the back of the Charizard, behind Momi. He stuck a protective arm around her waist, the other arm holding onto the Charizard as he gave it directions to Po Town. Momi tensed, looking down at his arm. 

“Chill out, I just don’t want you to fall off the damn pokemon.” He rolled his eyes. Momi took a deep breath and held the air in her lungs for a second before exhaling. She let her muscles relax, and Guzma seemed relieved to see that. They flew over the ocean, of course. Momi looked down at the waves and tried to block out every other thought. She blocked out the pain that burned through her sore muscles and watched water crash upon water in beautiful shades of blue and white. The sun had gone down and the moon had taken its place, its rays bouncing up off the water in glorious reflections of its splendor. 

The wind whipped at Momi’s face and clawed its way over her skin. She felt goosebumps rise on her skin and she shivered. Guzma’s arm tightened around Momi slightly, pulling her back a bit… and closer to him. He rested his chin on her shoulder, and Momi tensed again at the touch. At this, he lifted his chin and loosened his grip on her.

“My bad.” He muttered kind of quietly. Momi blinked. 

“..No, It’s okay.” Momi said. She wasn’t sure what she was saying, but honestly she knew she wanted his arm around her again. A moment passed of silence and inaction, but he pulled her closer again and rested his chin on her shoulder.

“Aight.”

Momi felt Guzma’s chest against her back. She could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. He leaned against her a bit with his chin on her shoulder, and she didn’t feel as cold anymore. Her eyes slowly closed and she focused not on the sounds of the waves crashing, but the feeling of warmth coming from his body. This was really weird. Here she was… on a charizard.. With the Team Skull leader being rather affectionate, and neither of them had really said anything. It was just something that was happening, and Momi actually felt kind of okay about it. For now. She figured later she’d probably feel a lot more weird about it, and there were some questions that were going to have to be asked. But she wanted to enjoy this. 

She tensed again as she felt his hand move up to her neck, and then to her hair. He began running his fingers through her hair. A few seconds passed, and she relaxed again. The Charizard slowed down a bit, the wind’s influence not as strong. She opened her eyes again, and looked to see where they were. Po Town was coming up. Guzma let go of Momi and sat up, removing his chin from her shoulder. She felt rather disappointed to have let this moment end like that, but… it was kind of weird. Really weird. Downright strange. And still, the two hadn’t really said anything. The mighty dragon landed back in Po Town. It wasn’t long before Momi felt the cool tapping of water against her skin. It was raining lighter than usual, at least.

Guzma slid off of the Charizard and offered his assistance to Momi as she got off. She happily took it, and then looked up at him. She tried to find words- _something_ to say. But he spoke first, thankfully. 

“Go get a shower. Clean yourself up, and then come to my room.” And with that, Guzma walked into the mansion. The Charizard left, the wind from it’s wings startling Momi a bit. She stepped into the mansion, and ignored the strange looks from other Team Skull Members. She couldn’t blame them. She looked like a mess. And honestly? She smelled like it to. 

Koa spotted Momi and hurried over to her. “What happened? You look awful, no offense.” Momi just looked at Koa for a second. It took a bit longer than she’d like to admit for her to process what Koa had said, everything that had happened was too much for Momi. 

“A lot happened.” Was all Momi managed to get out. “I’m about to go take a shower.”

Koa looked Momi up and down. “That’s for the best. I’ll bring you some new clothes, just use the bathroom up close by our room, I’ll bring them in for you.” Momi nodded, only halfway listening. She began making her way up the stairs tiredly. She felt like she was going to pass out. 

Jon was coming down the stairs. “Hey Momi! What.. Are you okay?”

Momi just didn’t answer him. She just continued on her way. She didn’t care to speak to anyone at all. She just wanted to shower, and go to bed. But even then, she was going to have to go talk to Guzma. Honestly, she was dreading it. She stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower to let the water heat up. She peeled off her clothes and got under the water. She stood, facing the water and letting it run down her face.

The water was warm, and comforting. But it wasn’t enough. Momi turned it up hotter-- until it was almost burning her skin. She closed her eyes, the hot water relaxing her muscles. She stuck her head under the water and ran her fingers through her hair to get the dirt out.

She heard the door open for a second and glanced out of the shower curtain to see that Koa was placing a new set of clothes on the counter. And then she left. Momi sighed, and sat down in the bottom of the shower. She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs and looked down. She just let the scorching water run over her skin. She took a deep breath, and looked down at herself.

Black and blue bruises littered her skin from the fight. It wasn’t even a fight, Momi couldn’t win. She could hardly fight back at all. These bruises were ugly and horrible, and they reminded her too much of past bruises. Bruises accumulated as a child. Bruises given to her by those that were supposed to love her. 

She could hardly differentiate between the water running down her face from the shower and the tears that ran down her cheeks. She felt her face heat up and her eyes turn red as she began to hideously sob. She grasped for anything, her mouth opening as if to cry out for help, but it never came. She dug her fingernails into the skin on her arms, raking them down and drawing warm blood to the surface. 

She was so tired, and each sob caused pain to rip through her already sore muscles, reigniting the pain caused by the Machoke. And this only made her cry more, it’d become a vicious cycle and she felt like she’d never get out of it. She was going to sit here and sob until she died. She’d cry so much she’d be dehydrated and just eventually give out. Of course, realistically, Momi knew this not to be true. But logic wasn’t always what drove a person’s thoughts. 

She sat there, under the water, for what felt like hours. Only when a knock came at the door was she snapped out of her stupor. She turned off the water, and shakily got to her feet. 

“I’ll be out in a moment.” Momi said rather weakly. She stuck one foot out of the shower to step out, but lost her balance. She fell, slipping and falling to the floor. She yelled out in pain. She heard the door open, and frantically tried to get up. She spotted a towel and snatched it, wrapping it around herself. 

“Are you okay?” A familiar voice asked, rather concerned. Momi sat up, and slowly stood back up. She looked to see who had entered. It was Guzma. 

“I’m fine!” Momi snapped kind of angrily at him, motioning for him to get out of the bathroom. He threw up his hands in apology before stepping out and closing the door.

“Sheesh, just trying to help. Heard you fall or some shit. Just remember to head up to my room when you’re done.” And then she heard footsteps walking away from the bathroom. Momi took a deep breath and stepped over to the counter. She looked in the mirror, staring at the person who stared back at her. Everything was so strange. She didn’t understand what was going on. Why was Guzma so insistent on her heading to his room? He was just going to question her about what happened, right? Couldn’t this wait until tomorrow? She wanted to crawl into bed and sleep. She wanted to take her Rockruff to the pokecenter. Speaking of her rockruff. She searched her old clothes, pulling out the pokeballs and setting them by the faucet. She slipped on the clothes Koa had brought for her, and put the pokeballs in her pocket. As she was doing so, she held the Absol in her hand for a second longer.

If she could have reached the ball, would it have protected her? Or would it have attacked her? To leave it’s ball and see the face of the person who scratched it’s eye- the person who ripped it away from its beloved trainer.

She shook her head and stuck it in her pocket. For now, she’d have to focus on getting to Guzma’s room. She tucked her hair away in a Skull beanie and stepped out of the bathroom. 

The guard in front of the path to Guzma’s room didn’t say anything to her as she passed. No one said anything. She felt all of their eyes on her. It made her feel horrible. Scared. Exposed. They were all looking at her, and they were all wondering what had happened. Did they think she was weak? Were they going to call her pathetic when they find out that she had been vanquished by someone who opposed their team? She hadn’t done a good job of standing up for Team Skull, she hadn’t represented the team. 

She snapped from her thoughts as her foot slipped on the wooden path to Guzma’s room. She caught herself, however, and made it inside.

And what of the pokemon she had seen before she passed out? The memory had only recently come back to her of its existence, but it had just sat there. Its blue eyes stared at her and yet it didn’t act. It had just watched her suffer. Though she had to admit, she’d never seen a pokemon like that. Perhaps if she could get her hands on a computer she could search it up. 

Now she stood in front of Guzma’s door, her hand raised to knock on it and yet she hesitated. She was probably overthinking his actions on the way back home, right? He was just making sure she was okay-- or even maybe just making sure she wasn’t cold. Nothing weird about that. Momi really just wanted to go back to her room. Her stomach was in knots-- but at the same time she was starving. Ugh. There were too many things for her to focus on at once, she wanted to rip her hair out. 

But the door opened by itself. Guzma leaned on the door frame, an eyebrow raised.

“And exactly how long have you been standing at my door? Gotta be honest Momi, kind of creepy.”

“W-What?” Momi blinked. “I just got here!”

“I could see your shadow under the door, dummy.” He rolled his eyes. She shoved off the word dummy, as she could see a light smile forming at the edges of his mouth. He stepped aside, gesturing for Momi to walk in. Momi did so, keeping her eyes low. She felt so weird. She’d been in the room before, it just felt kind of weird this time. And then something hit her. She hadn’t thanked Guzma for saving her.

“Thank you,” Momi said. “For helping me out.” Her voice kind of cracked with her uncertainty. He didn’t seem to care, though. He shrugged as he headed up to the throne-like chair at the end of the room. He took his seat, leaning an elbow on the arm of it and resting his chin in his hand. 

“Anything for my team. I need you to tell me what happened, though. And I need you to describe this guy for me so I can properly introduce myself.”

“I… I should have.. Done something.. I should have done better..” Momi began. Guzma narrowed his eyes.

“Stop that. Shut up, Momi.” He rolled his eyes. “Would it have been nice if you’d been able to defeat him? Definitely. But Team Skull members don’t go around attacking _people_ with our pokemon. Sure, we steal pokemon and if we’re challenged to a fight, we will give one. But it looks to me like you couldn’t have been a real threat in any sense, so what he did was wrong. And he’ll pay for it.” Guzma looked furious, but Momi reminded herself that his anger probably wasn’t directed at her. She didn’t really appreciate being told to shut up, however. She tensed a bit, her hands clenching a little as her heartbeat pounded awfully in her ears.

He tapped his fingers, waiting on her to start talking.

And with that, she recounted of how she had walked through the route and asked around to several people. Some had been nice, and some had been rude. Then she recounted the guy walking up with his Machoke, and how he had attacked her solely for being a Team Skull member. She ditched a lot of details, as reliving the moment made her feel kind of bad. She stared at the floor, refusing to look up at Guzma as she talked.

She was too busy talking to hear his footsteps, her eyes closing for a moment. Then she felt something touch her chin- lifting her head up. Guzma had gently lifted her head. 

“It’s fine, Momi. That’s enough. No one’s upset with you. You did your best. That’s all I really want from you.”

Now all Momi wanted to do was cry. 

“Go get some sleep.” He turned and headed back to his chair. “You’re coming with me tomorrow.”

Momi stood there for a second, and left. As she headed back to her room, those words echoed in her head. 

‘You did your best. That’s all I really want from you.’


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beatdown we have all been waiting for 
> 
> so yeah violence in this chapter beware

Chapter 17

Momi slept like a rock, and it felt like she was asleep for years. She didn't remember any dreams but she felt rather content. It was as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders and she could freely breathe. Although she felt worried about going with Guzma today, she was anticipating it. His character frightened her and being around him was enough to make her hands shake, but… she genuinely felt like he cares about her. Not in a romantic way of course… despite the strange actions the day before, Momi refused to entertain that thought. It would be vain of her to consider such a thing, right? He was the team skull leader, and she was just some skull grunt who got her ass beat.

He was kind of cute though.

She shook that thought from her head and pushed herself up to a sitting position. Koa was asleep in her bed.

Momi swung her legs off the bed, staring down at her feet. She put on some socks and slid on her shoes before stretching her arms. Her muscles still ached and burned, but it was dulled slightly. She still hurt, but she felt like she could actually move. Man, would she kill for something to drink.

She sluggishly headed downstairs and to one of the fridges. A few other tired looking grunts sat about the room. They glanced at Momi but otherwise paid her no mind. The room was small, an old fridge in the corner on its last legs, and a few cabinets threatening to fall from their places. Momi opened one and pulled out a cup. It looked to be a cheaply made child's cup, with some kiddy superhero advertised on it. After opening the fridge, she was delighted to find some orange juice.

She gladly poured herself a cup and walked back out of the small room. She took a sip and headed back upstairs. She should probably go see if Guzma was up, but then again, if it was too early… she didn't want to risk angering him. What time was it anyway?

Momi looked around for a clock, but the dilapidated mansion seemed to lack one. Luckily, Jon was coming down the stairs and Momi spotted a bright golden watch around his wrist. Momi smiled and hurried over.

“Jon!” Momi called. The scrawny boy seemed ecstatic to hear his own name, rushing over to Momi with a wide grin.

“Hi Momi! Are you okay?” His excited expression almost immediately shifted to that of a concerned one, and then he continued. “I heard that you were… well, that you got into a fight? What happened?”

Momi grimaced. She didn't really want to talk about it again, and especially not to Jon. She knew him, but not all too well, and she didn't feel particularly close.

“Ah, I'm okay.” She decided to completely dodge his other question. “What time is it?” She pointed to his watch.

He fumbled for his watch and squinted his eyes a bit before giving his answer.

“Oh, uh… its about 2 o’ clock.” He smiled. 

Two o’ clock? How long had she slept? Had Guzma been waiting on her to wake up? Would he be pissed she slept all day instead of getting up to go with him. Speaking of, where were they going to go? Back to Akala Island? Or somewhere else? She supposed there was no point in worrying. She could quite literally head up to his room and ask him. And without even thinking about it, she began running up the stairs.

“Thank you! See you!” She gave a half-hearted wave as she dashed up the stairs. She stopped herself from tripping, pausing before continuing. She stepped out the window and walked across the wooden boards outside in the rain before hopping back into the building and racing to Guzma’s room. She stood outside his door, and found a smile forming on her face. With her fist raised to knock, the smile grew wider. 

The door opened after two knocks, and per usual the rather intimidating Guzma towered over her with a signature grin, arms crossed. 

“I was wondering if you had died or somethin’. You ready to head out, then?”

Momi gave a nod, running a hand through her hair anxiously. “So, um.. You never told me where we were going?” She looked up at him expectantly. He rolled his eyes and leaned on the door frame. 

“Obviously we’re heading to Akala. I’m gonna teach that lowlife a lesson.” He stood up straight and exited his room and closing the door. He turned back to Momi and began walking, obviously expecting her to follow. And follow she did. She walked behind him, staring at the floor as she thought over this. They really were going to Akala. Would it be right for them to enact revenge on that guy? What he had done was awfully wrong, but in the end wasn’t he trying to protect his friends, his family? Momi was the one who showed up dressed in Team Skull attire, asking about other team skull members. They were right to be afraid.

However, as she walked, her muscles burned and pain clawed at her body like a ravenous beast. And for the first time in a while, Momi felt angry. She hadn’t done anything to anyone. She went to Akala Island, asked a few questions, and what did she get? She got her ass beat for no good reason. If she’d come up to the guy disrespectfully, If she’d threatened him, then maybe then she’d understand his actions. But she was nothing but calm and collected when she had interacted with those people. 

So what? Because she was a part of Team Skull it was okay to beat her up? No, It wasn’t. As she continued to think it over, more and more did she desire to see her attacker experience the exact pain he had put her through. To see him shoved into the mud and stripped of his dignity. What a pig. How dare he think he better than Momi just because she was in Team Skull. Guzma would show him what happens when you fuck with Team Skull, right?

These thoughts were so strange, fueled by a hatred Momi didn’t know she was capable of. A blazing and destructive feeling that came from nowhere. Momi never remembered experiencing something so hateful and dark as this feeling she had now. As she followed Guzma throughout the mansion, she started to feel excited. She wanted to see what was going to happen- to help Guzma- to cheer him on. She wanted revenge.

They stepped outside the mansion, and Guzma turned to Momi. “Damn.” He scratched the back of his head, chuckling quietly. “I forgot to look around for another ride pager. Looks like we’ll just have to share again, hm?” He raised an eyebrow, as if waiting to see her reaction. Momi gave a small shrug.

“I don’t really mind.” She kind of did. Not that she wasn’t kind of okay with this, she just wanted him to say something about the whole arm thing. Was she still overthinking this stupid arm thing? Damn. 

He pulled out his ride pager and called a Charizard. They waited in silence, standing side by side as light rain drops fell. Momi stuck out her hand, letting a few rain drops drop into the palm of her hand. She felt Guzma’s eyes on her as she did so; so she turned her hand over and let the water drip down her fingertips and down to the ground where it had intended to go in the first place. 

It didn’t take long for a rather large Charizard to take its place before them. It turned its head and examined the two before it and snorted. Guzma walked over and patted the pokemon before looking at Momi expectantly. Momi rolled her eyes and carefully climbed onto the Charizard, Guzma doing the same. The Charizard outstretched its wings, and gave a bit of a yawn before taking off. 

Guzma stuck his arm around Momi’s waist. It was a bit rocky as the Charizard lifted off, Momi held tightly to it, but she relaxed once they were smoothly gliding over the ocean. She could hardly focus on the water below her like she wished so much to. She looked down at his arm gently holding onto her. She knew automatically she was going to overthink this to the point she wasn’t sure what it meant anymore. She knew it didn’t really _mean_ anything, she just wanted it to.

No, no she didn’t. She did not want it to mean anything. She wasn’t going to let herself do that, right? Plus, even if that’s what she wanted, that’s honestly just giving yourself false hope. Which just sucks. But she couldn’t lie. Seeing Guzma go through all of this to get revenge for Momi was kind of… romantic in a fucked up way. She was definitely overthinking it. She chided herself for looking at someone like this as a romantic gesture-- All Guzma wants is to protect his team, his family. And she happened to fall up under that category. 

Still, part of her tried to entertain the idea he did this specifically for her, because he cared for her. It would feel nice to be cared about like that. Momi never really had any experience with those feelings, so any slight hint of them made her feel kind of.. Unsafe. It was scary to experience new things. 

“What in hell are you thinking about?” Guzma’s voice woke her up like an alarm clock. “You’ve been staring at the same spot for like two minutes. Are you okay, or..?”

Mom blinked, and gave a nervous smile. She tried to laugh it off. “I’m fine, just stared off into space a bit. I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize.” He muttered. “Anyways, you’re going to be able to point this guy out to me, right?” He asked. Momi nodded. There was nothing all too special about him to point him out, but she would be able to recognize his face for sure. 

“Alright, good.” Guzma gave a nod. “And what pokemon did you say he had?” 

“A machoke.” Momi swallowed. She wasn’t too excited about the pokemon prior to this, but now she feared that she had grown a hatred for the pokemon. It had been the bane of her existence for a long time. Her parents made sure it always kept her in the house, watched over her. The Machoke back at home wasn’t necessarily mean, but it was more than that. It was a symbol of her captivity, the warden to her cozy jail. Her Dad’s Machoke had never meant Momi harm, and she knew that. But this one had, and she couldn’t help but hate the pokemon after this. Such a ruthless brute. She never wanted to see another again as long as she lived. 

Momi paused her train of thought. With these ideas came more of the fiery, scorching hate that was new to her. She felt like the hate made her stronger in a sense-- she was compelled to do something about those who have hurt her. And that was new- Momi had always been rather complacent. Despite her parent’s actions, she never tried to fight them back. When the girl on route 6 was rude to her, Momi did her best to walk away. She never tried to fight back, and yet this new feeling left her feeling empty if she _didn’t_ fight back. 

In any case, it didn’t seem like Momi was going to do any of the fighting. That would probably be Guzma. Come to think of it, he had seemed rather pissed about this as well. Was this new feeling so common? Was it okay to feel like this? And could she compare her feelings to those of Guzma, the hardened Team Skull Leader? Believing that these feelings were okay because Guzma feels them would be rather childish of her. Obviously Guzma is not the pinnacle of ethical balance. 

It did make her feel better about it though to not be the only one to feel such a hatred. She felt like somehow she knew Guzma felt the same burning feeling. At the same time though, Momi still wasn’t sure whether or not this was something she was okay with. 

The Charizard began its descent and Momi held onto it tighter- but at her discomfort, Guzma tightened his grip on her slightly as though to comfort her. And comfort her it did, as she let out a breath and her muscles relaxed. Her hands shook slightly. She didn’t want to see the face of the man who attacked her. Well, part of her did. The part fueled by hatred. But.. the other part just wanted to go back to the mansion and curl up in her blankets and wish that it had never happened. Like a coward. That summed it up pretty much, half of Momi wanted to act cowardly and return home. But it was too late to go back now, and she wouldn’t dare go against what Guzma wanted. He seemed like the kind of person to get pissed when he didn’t get his way. 

Once on the ground, Guzma got off of the Charizard and offered Momi a hand to help her off. She gladly took it and got off, before thanking the Charizard. It gave a disatisfied grunt to see that they weren’t going to give him any berries or beans. Poor thing. How did Momi keep forgetting to get something for these guys? But then Guzma stepped up to him. 

“Alright big guy, you’re right, you deserve some Poke beans. I brought some today.” He pulled a red bean from his pocket and offered it to the Dragon. He happily snatched it up in his jaws and devoured it before giving a pleased roar and examining Guzma to find any more. Guzma handed over one more bean before throwing up his hands. 

“I’m out, buddy. Sorry about that.” He laughed a little. The Charizard rubbed its snout against Guzma’s hand before moving away a bit and taking off. 

Momi looked around and examined the route. Just the same as she had left it. However, the same people who were there the other day were not standing there anymore. There were a few different people in the route, searching for pokemon or going about their business taking no mind of Guzma and Momi’s presence. To the right of them, she could see the entrance to the ranch she had noticed last time. And to the left, she saw in the distance where she had spoken to that rude girl. 

“So where on the route was he, Momi?” Guzma stuck his hands on his hips and surveyed the route as well. 

Momi pointed in the distance, in the same direction of the spot the girl had been. “When I met him, I was walking that way and he was walking the opposite way.. So he was probably heading to that ranch, I’d suppose..” She looked back towards the ranch. Guzma nodded in his agreement.

“Aight, so we’re gonna search this route first, and if he ain’t here, then we’ll head off to the ranch.” Guzma began walking. “Let’s split up to cover more ground.”

Momi frowned. She didn’t really like the idea of splitting up. Then the problem became, what if she _did_ find him? What if he attacked her again. Momi stood in her spot for a second. She wanted to say something, she wanted to tell him that wasn’t a good idea but for the millionth time in her life she couldn’t find the courage.

When Guzma noticed that she hadn’t moved from her spot, he turned to look at her. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed.

“Nevermind, let’s not split up. It’ll take a bit more time, but uh.. It’ll be okay.” He ushered Momi over. She walked over to him, feeling very relieved. Guzma looked like he was about to say something else, but he must have changed his mind. They began walking all over the route, not caring to speak to anyone. Guzma didn’t really say much, but Momi didn’t mind. No need to talk, there was nothing to say. 

After a while, they both came to the conclusion that their perp wasn’t in route 6. So Guzma sighed, adjusting the glasses on top of his head. 

“Looks like we’re headed to the ranch, Momi. I hope you’re right, cause I really don’t wanna walk all over this godforsaken island for this loser.” He laughed a little bit, and Momi laughed a little with him. 

“Maybe after this, we can go chill out and get some Tapu Cocoa.” Guzma suggested with a grin. Momi recalled the time Koa had gotten her Tapu Cocoa. Momi had liked it, but it wasn’t anything she’d go crazy over. But having a drink with Guzma could be fun, and it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to ‘chill out’ with him. Truth be told, she’d like to get to know him. He was kind of mysterious, and the only real thing she knew about him was how much he cared about Team Skull. This was her chance to ask him some things. So Momi nodded her agreement.

“That sounds fun, actually.” She smiled back at him, and he chuckled a little nervously, scratching the back of his head. 

“It does?” He asked, almost as though he was unsure of the suggestion himself. Momi nodded to reassure him, but that was strange in itself. He’d never seemed to need reassurance on anything, why was something so simple knocking him off his game?

They stepped into the ranch, seeing a sign that read ‘Paniola Ranch’ before them. Guzma stared at it a second. 

“Oh wait, I think I’ve been here before! You can ride Stoutland’s here. THey raise them, It’s actually pretty cool. It’d be a shame if we found that loser in a place as cool as this.” Guzma looked around kind of excitedly. “Hear me out, we take a break from our super important search and we ride a Stoutland.” He looked at Momi to see her reaction. Push off finding her attacker and possibly getting her ass beat again? Why not!

“Yea, sure.” Momi smiled. Guzma lead her around the ranch until he found an attendant. There was a small fee, but Guzma didn’t seem to mind paying it for the chance to ride a Stoutland. It was kind of crazy to see him so excited over something so small-- Momi was sure there was some way to register a stoutland to your ride pager, and if so, how come Guzma hadn’t? Either way, Momi was kind of excited herself. The two were taken over to the stables and a Stoutland was lead out by the kind attendant for each of them. 

The attendant tried instructing Momi on how to get onto the Soutland, but Momi was still having some trouble. Before she knew it, however, someone’s arms had lifted her onto the Stoutland. She looked to see Guzma.

“It was kind of embarrassing to see you struggle like that.” He laughed a little. He walked back over to his Stoutland and climbed on with absolutely no hesitation and no problems. 

“A-Alright, but how do I make it go?” Momi asked a little nervously. Guzma rolled his eyes.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure yours will follow mine.” He directed his Stoutland to start walking, and after beckoning Momi’s Stoutland, it followed Guzma’s. Momi laughed a little bit as the sturdy Stoutland walked. It often bent down to sniff the ground. 

“This is amazing, I oughta get a cowboy hat or somethin’.” Guzma laughed. Momi grinned. The thought of Guzma in a cowboy hat was kind of ridiculous. 

They rode around the ranch on the Stoutlands for a long time. It was so peaceful. The ranch was so disconnected from everything else, there was no stress. 

But then Momi froze. Her body hit with a wave of anxiety as she saw him. She saw in in the northern part of the ranch towards what a sign told her was route 5. And with one glance at Guzma, he seemed to understand. Her attacker was coming into the ranch from route 5, wearing the same hoodie as the day he attacked Momi. 

“That’s him?” Guzma asked quietly. 

“Yes.” Momi almost whispered. 

“Let’s go!” Guzma yelled. The Stoutlands broke into runs, breaking down fences and hopping over rocks as they bustled their way towards the man coming from route 5. Momi screamed, holding onto the Stoutlands as they moved way too fast. Guzma was laughing.

The man looked up at all of the racket-- Saw Guzma-- Saw Momi-- and turned tail and _ran._ The Ranch workers yelled and called for Guzma and Momi to stop, the Stoutlands weren’t supposed to leave the ranch, but before they knew it, the two were headed off into route 5. 

Once in route 5, Momi had lost sight of him. But the Stoutlands hadn’t, and they seemed to follow his trail. Then Momi heard a loud, shrill whistle. Her Stoutlands topped in its tracks while Guzma’s continued. It turned its head and perked its ears before bucking Momi off into the dirt. Her muscle pains roared back to life as she hit the ground and she let out an annoyed groan. She looked around for any side of Guzma. He had ditched her.. Momi pulled her knees up to her chest, waiting for the pain to ease itself. He really only cared about protecting Team Skull’s reputation. 

Then she heard the sounds of rapid footsteps from something with more than two feet. She heard the panting of a Stoutland. She turned her head to see Guzma on the Stoutland racing towards her. Momi got to her feet, but before she knew it, she’d been yanked onto the Stoutland. She yelled out in surprise as Guzma pulled her on, she clung to his arms as she got herself situated, seated in front of him.

“We can’t slow down now!” Guzma laughed rather crazily. “We’ve almost got him!” And with that, the Stoutland turned and raced off in the direction Guzma had come. Momi clung to the Stoutland, Guzma wrapping an arm around her per what was now becoming usual. As they ran, Momi started laughing. She sat up and let the wind flow through her hair. She grinned and looked back at Guzma, who was laughing as well. This was fun. 

The Stoutland raced through route 5, past trees and rocks and people-- until they saw the hooded man running. He turned his head and looked back at the Stoutland in his pursuit-- and he looked horrified. Momi couldn’t help but laugh at the scared shitless look on his face. She felt so powerful in this moment, she could do anything and everything she has ever wanted, wants, or will want. In this moment, she was stronger than she’d ever been.

Guzma slowed the Stoutland down. The man had stopped, figuring it useless to run. He fumbled for a pokeball, staring at the two and holding the ball, threatening to throw it. Guzma slid off the Stoutland and helped Momi down. Then the Stoutland took off and ditched the group. Guzma stood in front of Momi, taking a few steps towards the hooded guy.

“Heard you had something against Team Skull.” Guzma cracked his knuckles. All the excitement faded and Momi felt nothing but anxiety. The guy stuttered a bit, before sending out his Machoke. Guzma immediately responded by releasing his Golisopod. Golisopod attacked the Machoke, keeping it busy while Guzma advanced towards Momi’s attacker. Momi tensed, unsure of what Guzma was going to do. 

In a flash, Guzma’s fist had connected with the other guy’s face. He stumbled backwards, yelling out in loud pain and throwing up his arms in defense. This was futile as Guzma swept his legs out from under him. Momi’s attacker crashed to the ground, the air knocked out of him. Guzma laughed loudly, his arms crossed as he placed a foot on his chest to hold him down. Momi couldn’t help but cheer Guzma on. Not vocally, of course, but she rooted for him on the inside. The scalding hatred that resided within her somewhere unknown bubbled to the top and fueled her excitement as Guzma tormented the one who had once tormented her. The man under Guzma’s foot looked terrified as his Machoke slowly lost his battle with Golisopod. He was forced to watch his pokemon helplessly lose to Guzma’s strength and might.

Momi wanted that strength. Her hatred burning inside craved the strength to enact her own revenge, she no longer wished to hide behind others and cower. She wanted to be the one who others hid behind. She wanted to protect her team like Guzma protected her. 

The Machoke crumpled to the ground, unable to battle after a barrage of attacks by Golisopod. Golisopod released a shrill battle cry before turning to Guzma. Guzma grabbed the guy by the collar. 

“Won’t even fight back, huh?” Guzma glared. “But you had the guts to send a pokemon after a person? At least I’m making it fair! Person on person. Pokemon on pokemon.” Guzma held him by the collar with one hand, and the other he clenched into a fist. Momi watched, her fists clenching almost automatically. 

He slammed his fist into his cheek, knocking him backwards and into the ground. Guzma shook his hand a little bit as iff to shake away the pain residing in his knuckles. He returned his Golisopod to its ball, ran a hand through his hair, and gave a maniacal grin. 

“That’s what happens when you fuck with Team Skull.”

This was exhilarating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think of the person Momi is becoming?


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sup yall? it's been a while, i'm sorry!!! i said iw as going to do something special since we hit 1000 hits. So, in the comments below if you want to, comment what kind of drawing from this fanfic you'd like to see, cause i draw sometimes. so do that, pls. also if you could post any theories you have lmao like if you have any speculation about whats gonna happen to our dear momi in the future or anything like that, let me know!!! no pressure tho. mainly just the drawing stuff. thanks for reading!

Momi looked down at the Tapu Cocoa she held in her hands. The warm mug was pleasant to hold, but she found that she didn’t really care for the drink. The store they sat in was small and warmly lit by lamps that hung from the ceiling. Guzma sat in the seat directly across from her, looking down into a similar mug. He took a sip of Tapu Cocoa and grinned slightly every so often. He glanced up at Momi and back down at his drink. She refused to look at him. She felt so dead. She felt so empty. Unsure. Scared. Excited. Confused. Everything about today should have felt wrong, she should be angry, she should be apologizing to that guy. He didn’t deserve what he’d gotten, and yet. She didn’t feel bad. She felt good about it. She’d been avenged, and he had obviously learned his lesson. 

It’s not like they had killed the guy or anything, but he certainly wasn’t going to be threatening any Team Skull members any time soon. Momi couldn’t get the image of Guzma beating the shit out of him. But she didn’t want to think about it. She took a sip of the Tapu Cocoa and looked up at Guzma. He had rested his chin in his hand, staring down into his cup as though searching for something. Maybe he felt as conflicted as she did? Probably not. He was used to this kind of thing. 

The diner they sat in was super comfy. A woman stood behind a counter and hummed to herself as she washed glasses. The moon shined through one of the windows, and only two other people sat in the store. Momi closed her eyes for a moment and listened to the counter woman humming along as she worked. Momi and Guzma hadn’t said anything since they had gotten here. But the silence wasn’t awkward. In some weird way, it was calming. She preferred this silence. But it was inevitable that the silence be eventually ruined. 

“So…” Guzma spoke, raising his head and looking up at Momi. 

“So…” Momi reciprocated the word, looking away from the person before her. He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his messy hair. He accidentally knocked his sunglasses down, and they hit the table with a quiet sound. He didn’t seem to care about putting them on at the moment. 

“Are you upset or somethin’?” He asked, leaning back in his seat and looking down at Momi somewhat condescendingly. Or maybe it wasn’t that he was looking at her condescendingly, but maybe his stature in general was scary. Momi wasn’t too sure how to answer such a question. One one hand, being honest was always the best thing to do. If she lied, then she would have to keep it up and that would just be another thing she had to worry about. However, if she told him the truth, he might see her as weak and she would definitely lose her standing with him. She felt good where she was, their interactions up until now had balanced out. She stared down into the brown chocolate liquid in her cup as though searching for her answers. The cup failed her. Damn. Honesty it is, then. 

She stuck her chin up and looked at him. “Yea. This doesn’t feel right. Although he did attack me, aren’t people supposed to y’know.. Turn the other cheek?”

“Don’t bullshit me. If you really still believed that, you’d be back at home with your parents right now.” He sipped his drink. “It’s like what I said earlier. An eye for an eye. Why is it okay for people to do a kind thing for someone who was kind, but not for someone to do something shitty to someone who was shitty? It’s the same principle. He fucked you up, so now I fucked him up since you couldn’t. I’m not letting anyone get by treating my family like that.” He was starting to get angry again, but she suspected the anger was not directed at her. What he had said got her mind stirring again. He made a good point. People were always nice to those who were nice to them, what use was it to be nice to someone who was mean to you? Why did she have to turn the other cheek when she was just going to get hit again? Guzma radiated confidence in his statements. There’d be no changing his mind, not now, not ever. Momi kind of admired it..

“...I feel better now.” She spoke up, honestly. His words had changed her view of the action almost totally and completely. Was it that she really agreed with him or that she fed onto that confidence of his.. She wasn’t too sure.

“I’m glad. Are you hungry or anything? I think I’m gonna order some food.” He perused the menu, finally picking up his fallen glasses and putting them back on his head. He seemed to have eased up a bit, the tension settling. She shook her head.

“Thanks, but no thanks. Someone stole all my money, I think.” She sighed. He looked up from his menu.

“I was offering to buy it _for _you.” He rolled his eyes. “Why don’t we get this and share it? It’s like a platter of fries covered in cheese, ranch, bacon, and some other stuff. I heard it’s really good.” He seemed kind of set on it. Momi was a little touched that he was offering to buy her food, and her stomach growled to let her know that she was in fact hungry. He had to have heard it.. But thank god he was pretending he didn’t. She gave a small nod.__

__“That sounds wonderful.” She smiled at him. He seemed to be amused, laughing a little bit._ _

__“You’re kind of odd, kid.” He paused. “I mean-”_ _

__“It’s okay.” She shook her head. He was trying really hard to stop calling her kid. It seemed that was what he called most of the grunts, even though they weren’t all too far apart in age. She couldn’t recall his age from the birthday party… perhaps it was some sort of a secret. She could ask around a bit. Maybe Jon or Koa would know. Guzma called over the waitress and she happily walked on over as she dried her hands with a dish towel. He pointed to it on the menu._ _

__“I’d like this, please.” He said with a rather monotonous voice. She gave a happy smiled and nodded, walking back to the counter and resuming her sweet humming. While Momi seemed calmed by it, it appeared that Guzma was not so fond. He stared out the window at the small town they had come to. Children walked down the street with their pokemon, heading home. Guzma was fixated on them for a bit, and then he switched his gaze to the sky. There were a few clouds but the moon didn’t fail to shine through for the two of them. It poked from the clouds as a silent hello on the quiet night._ _

__Momi couldn’t believe she could feel so much peace right after such a violent event but she somehow felt lighter. At least she knew that guy wouldn’t hurt anyone else. Speaking of…_ _

__“What about the girl? The one that disappeared. I was looking for her on route 6. Do you think he would have had something to do with that?” Momi looked a little concerned now. In her excitement, she’d forgotten about the point of the mission in the first place. Guzma gave a bit of a shrug._ _

__“Don’t worry about that kind of stuff right now. You should be resting up and stuff. I’ll have Plumeria worry about it.” He shook his head. Come to think of it, her muscles still hurt terribly. The ride home was going to be awful. She gave a bit of a nod and felt heart warmed by his concern. But she doubted it was meant for her specifically. She was just a part of the family. And he obviously cared so much about the family._ _

__The waitress brought by a giant plate of fries covered in a variety of sauces and toppings. Momi’s mouth watered at the sight of it and she grabbed a fork. She stabbed it into some fries and tried them. It was really strange, how all of these things came together to work so well. But she loved it. Guzma had no interest in a utensil, picking up several of the fries and stuffing them in his mouth. He too, really seemed to like the dish. Momi chuckled a little, grabbing him a napkin. He’d gotten cheese on the side of his face._ _

__“You got a little something there.” She handed him the napkin and he laughed as well. He wiped it off and thanked her before eating some more fries. And then the two fell into a comfortable silence as they ate, sipping their drinks and looking out the window every so often. All these different components, coming together nicely. It was cheesy, but it made her think of Team Skull. People, all with different stories. And yet together, they made such a beautiful team. Maybe not the best-working team.. But they knew how to have fun and make each other feel loved. And that was what she liked. She didn’t feel alone anymore, and she felt for the most part that she could be whoever she wanted. There was of course the matter of stealing pokemon, but she recalled some of Guzma’s words from before she had joined. He had talked of taking things from the same world that took from us. And just like his explanation for enacting revenge, it made sense to her. It made her feel better about being a part of Team Skull… and now in her body, instead of a fiery hatred, she felt a fiery yearning to make her team proud. To make her family proud._ _

__It was different. There were times back at home where she had made her parents ‘proud.’ However, she didn’t do it because she wanted them to be happy. She did it to avoid the consequences and the debilitating feeling of failure. She had just wanted to stop… but now she wanted to do more._ _

__It wasn’t long before the fries had disappeared. Guzma paid the bill and lead Momi to the door._ _

__“Let’s head back. It’s been a long day.” He said before pulling out his ride pager. They stood outside in the dark as they waited patiently for the Charizard to arrive. A cool breeze blew across the two, making Momi shiver slightly. She looked up at the street lamps and watched the trees and their branches sway in the wind. It was a pretty peaceful moment until Charizard came and beat them with wind from it’s wings. Momi’s hair went all over the place, earning a laugh from Guzma. She laughed along, and carefully got onto the Charizard with Guzma behind her. The same protective arm wrapped around her as he directed the Charizard to take off._ _

__Momi didn’t look down at the ocean. She closed her eyes and focused on her other senses for a bit. The sound of the wind rushing in her ears, the smell of salt gently wafting past and the feeling of Guzma’s arm wrapped around her. She reminded herself not to think too much into these things. Life was so much easier when she stopped worrying._ _

__In the blink of an eye, they had returned to Po Town and once again she was soaked in rain. Guzma didn’t seem too happy to be rained on either. He hurried inside with her, and without a goodbye, headed back up to his room. Momi stretched her arms and yawned. She slowly made her way up the steps and opened the door to her shared room with Koa._ _

__She stopped in her tracks. Koa was on her bed, with someone laid across her, their lips locked as they seemed to sharing a _private _moment. It took them to notice her, and that’s when it hit her. Koa and Plumeria were kissing. Plumeria was the one on top of Koa. Plumeria seemed rather pissed off that Momi had walked in, and Koa was a little embarrassed. Momi gave a nervous wave before turning on her heel and closing the door. She had no idea Koa and Plumeria were a thing… or something. But she could dwell on that later. She needed to find somewhere else to sleep. She only knew two other people in this place, honestly. Jon and Guzma. She couldn’t go ask Guzma to find her a place to sleep. He’d get pissed and probably just tell her to do it on her own. So, Jon would have to help her out. She asked around to find out which room was his, and promptly walked to his door and knocked on it. No more walking in on people. Not happening. The scrawny boy happily opened the door and smiled pleasantly when Momi greeted him.___ _

____“What’s up? Weren’t you with Guzma all day ?” He cocked his head to the side. She nodded, and cut to the chase._ _ _ _

____“I need a favor.” She laughed nervously. “I need to find somewhere else to stay for the night. Koa… is busy… with stuff…” She trailed off. “And I really just need to stay out of that room for the night.” She clasped her hands together, hoping he could help her out. Jon thought for a moment._ _ _ _

____“I think most rooms are kind of full. My room is a single, I’ve just got a big bed though. You can stay with me, if you’re okay with that.” He shrugged. “I don’t mind sharing. Plus, I have a ton of DVD’s. We can watch some movies.” He grinned. That sounded awesome, actually. She nodded, and took him up on his offer. She walked inside with him. His bed really _was _big. A king sized bed, with the blankets actually made up for once. He searched through his DVD collection and popped one in before sitting on his bed. Momi gladly took a seat. She was so happy to finally let herself rest.___ _ _ _

______The movie he had chosen was some sort of comedy, but Momi wasn’t paying too much attention. She lied down on the bed. There was tons of room between them, and Momi didn’t really feel threatened or anything by Jon. Jon was such a sweety. She closed her eyes for a bit, but found sleep evaded her. Eventually, the movie ended and Jon turned out the lights. He must have thought she was asleep._ _ _ _ _ _

______A bit of silence.._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Jon?” She whispered._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Yea?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“How long have you been a Team Skull member?” She asked. She could hear him laugh a little._ _ _ _ _ _

______“It’s only been a few months, why?” She felt him shift a little bit. She pulled the blanket over herself and turned on her side._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I’m kind of scared. I don’t know if I can do all of the stuff..”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“You’re gonna be fine, I promise.” Jon assured her. She smiled, but knew he couldn’t see it._ _ _ _ _ _

______“Can I ask for your advice, Momi?” Jon asked. She replied with a quiet yea, and he continued. “I have a crush on someone. I’ve known them for a while.. I.. really like them. I don’t know what to do. I’m not good at that kind of stuff. I never really liked relationships. My mom went from guy to guy to guy to guy. I always felt like in the end, relationships aren’t a worthy endeavor.. But ever since I’ve met this person.. I’ve been so much happier.. What should I do?”_ _ _ _ _ _

______Momi paused for a second. “Shit, man. I don’t know. I’m not good at that kind of stuff. I’ve never dated anyone ever!”_ _ _ _ _ _

______“Seriously? Never?” He sounded shocked._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I wasn’t really allowed to.” She replied. He gave a hum of acknowledgement and thought for a second._ _ _ _ _ _

______“I just don’t know how to tell him.” Jon sigihed. “Like, I could make a card with hearts and stuff in it but what if he thinks its too cheesy? What if I talk to him and mess up and say something stupid? It’s just so stressful.” He sighed. At this point, Momi was realizing how annoyed she was getting. She had left her room to get away from some relationship stuff, and now Jon was talking to her about his. It wasn’t _that _bad, but she realized that she wasn’t too excited about it.___ _ _ _ _ _

________“You’re gonna be fine, Jon. Promise.” She copied him, laughing a little. He laughed as well._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________More silence in the darkness._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Hey Momi, do you think Guzma is a bug type dressed up as a person?” He joked. Momi laughed at the thought._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Maybe.” She responded._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Do you think Mudsdales’ have nightmares?” He asked._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Jon, go to sleep.” She laughed again._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________“Okay, okay.” He laughed._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________Silence.. And finally sleep._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the late chapter. its been a long time huh? school is killing me   
> have some gays. i love these gays

Momi woke to an empty bed, It looked like during the night she had stolen most of the blankets from the other side. She yawned and let her tired eyes close again. Maybe she could sleep a little more… As if on cue, Lycanroc broke free from its ball to wake her. He excitedly ran in a circle on the bed before pouncing heavily on Momi. Momi gave a pained groan before shoving the giant rock dog off of her. 

“I get it, I get it.. No sleeping in.” She sat up and ran her fingers through the fur of her precious pokemon. She probably should get him off of Jon’s bed before he got hair all over it, but decided to pull Lycanroc in for a hug. He excitedly licked her face and barked super loud. If she wasn’t awake before, she was definitely awake now. She took Lycanroc’s ball and returned him to it. She stared down at the only other pokeball she owned. Absol lurked within. What did he see? What did he hear? Would she ever release him? It was unfair to keep him there like that.

But she needed more time. She’d make him wait a little longer. She wasn’t ready to face what she had done to that poor Absol’s eye. 

She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stretched. She wondered for a moment where Jon had gone, but didn’t dwell too long on the subject. She stepped out of the room to see that the mansion was as usual. Not too busy but not too quiet. She stood at the top of the stairs and her eyes lingered on the railing. What if instead of walking down all those steps, she slid down the railing? It sounded fun as hell. She thought a moment about all the ways it could go wrong.. She could lean too forward and fall onto the stairs and roll the rest of the way.. Or worse.. She could lean back and fall a pretty long drop. She felt a shiver crawl up her spine… maybe she could try it another day. For today, she walked down the steps normally. 

Koa was at the bottom of the steps, leaning against the railing with Plumeria standing over her. Plumeria glanced at Momi and said something quietly before leaving Koa. Koa looked up to Momi with a smile. Momi stopped at the bottom step. 

“So, uh..” Momi trailed off rather awkwardly.

“About last night,” Koa began to explain, but then began to trail off awkwardly. A hideously awkward moment of silence ensued with both of the girls tapping their fingers or giving side glances as they both figured out what to say to each other. 

“My bad.” Koa shrugged. “We cool?” She asked, looking off to the side rather than at Momi directly. Momi gave a smile.

“We’re cool. You two are kinda cute, I think. I had no idea, though!” Momi gave an expression of surprise. Koa grinned and laughed nervously. She scratched the back of her head.

“Yea, we kept it kind of quiet for a while but we were thinkin’ about maybe letting it out a bit. She’s really worried about Guzma’s reaction.” Koa admitted. 

“You think he’s gonna be mad?” Momi blinked. 

“Well, not exactly..” Koa shrugged. As luck would have it, the two of them heard a loud shrieking coming from the man himself. He came from the makeshift kitchen and into the main hall, dragging a rather pissed Plumeria with him. He pointed at Koa. 

“You!” Guzma shouted. Koa stiffened, looking a little frightened. Guzma was rather loud, whether he realized it or not. He reached over and took Koa by the arm, pulling him into a large hug. He wrapped his arms around Plumeria and Koa, squeezing the two terribly hard. They reluctantly wrapped their arms around Guzma as best they could. 

“Alright Guzma, that’s.. That’s enough..” Plumeria barely managed to speak. He let go of the two of them.

“I’m just so excited! I love it when my babies start dating each other!” He grinned.

“That… please don’t say it like that.” Plumeria looked at Koa, and Koa rolled her eyes. He did not realize the awkwardness of his own statement...

Momi laughed a little at the display. Guzma walked off with Plumeria, the two of them rambling on about something else. Momi stepped over to Koa.

“How about we hang out or something today?” Momi suggested. It’d been a bit since she’d spent some time with Koa, and she wished to get to know her a little bit better. Koa gave an enthusiastic nod, and walked outside with Momi. The rain had stopped and the sun peeked through the clouds to say hello. Momi smiled. Without the constant downpour, she could hear the waves all the way from the mansion.

“Why don’t we do some training first?” Koa suggested. “I’m sure that Rockruff of yours could use some training.”

“He’s not a Rockruff anymore!” Momi informed her with a smile. She grabbed his ball and released Lycanroc. He immediately sniffed Koa and began trying to get her attention. Koa obliged and knelt down to pet the giant dog. She smiled.

“Can’t believe he evolved so quickly! You must be proud. I wish I could get a dusk stone so Murkrow would evolve.” Koa sighed. “I found a guy once who had one, but he refused to sell to a Team Skull member.” Koa made a disgusted expression, but then was surprised when Lycanroc leapt up to lick her face. Koa fell backward with the rock type showering her with love. Momi laughed and gently pulled on the rocks jutting from his neck to get him off of her. Koa got back to her feet and dusted herself off.

“Let’s battle, then.” Momi nodded. Koa walked across the Mansion’s lawn until she was an appropriate distance away, and sent out Murkrow. Murkrow immediately realized the situation and focused on Lycanroc. Momi felt kind of odd, since neither of them announced the start of the battle. She felt uneasy, unsure of when to begin directing Lycanroc. It seemed Koa felt the same. Eventually Koa directed Murkrow to attack, and the battle finally commenced.

Momi no longer felt the cold icy fear that once captivated her chest during these times. The sun bathed Momi’s skin in a nice warm feeling while the battle raged on. It was nice, calm, and Momi was focused. She didn’t feel in any danger or the fear of losing. She wasn’t afraid of being humiliated because she knew after the battle, she and Koa could laugh off whatever happened. 

Lycanroc listened to Momi’s every word and gesture. The battle felt like a choreographed dance. Koa and Murkrow were in perfect sync with one another. While Momi and Lycanroc weren’t quite on that level, Momi felt a particular connection with the dog-like pokemon standing in front of her. She saw each time he glanced back at her, checking on her, even though this battle wasn’t serious. She noticed how he waited for her words, waited for the signal even when there was an opening for attack. 

Momi felt her anxieties return like a sack of bricks as Lycanroc was knocked back and onto the ground. She watched him lay there for a moment, but of course he happily got back to his feet. She let out a sigh of relief. She kind of felt like an over-protective mom watching over a child on a playground. She knew everything was going to be okay, and yet she still worried about her kid falling out of the slide and landing on his neck or something.

 

The pained yelps and whines of Lycanroc woke Momi from her thoughts. Lycanroc took longer to get up this time, his fatigue was getting obvious. Although, Koa’s Murkrow was no better. It seemed like the fight was coming to a stalemate. Koa returned Murkrow.

“That’s enough for now. Your Lycanroc is really hardy, huh?” She stuck her hands in her pockets. “No matter how much I knock him down, he keeps getting back up.” Koa grinned. “Let’s get them looked at. The center isn’t too far from here.” Koa motioned for Momi to follow. They walked through Po Town until they arrived at a shabby, run down Pokecenter. Inside, two other grunts were sitting atop a counter with their legs hanging off. Koa spoke to them and they took the pokeballs. They had to wait around a bit. Koa leaned against the wall, and Momi imitated her. 

Koa took a deep breath, and spoke. “Plumeria is so great. She gets me, y’know? Like.. She’s so sweet and cute. I love the way she does her makeup. I know some people might think it looks really weird, and I know some people don’t like her hair, but I think everything about her is adorable..”

Momi felt kind of guilty for not wanting to listen to this. Koa was her friend, and she felt obligated to care about her relationship with Plumeria. So she put on her best smile.

“Oh yeah?” She looked over at Koa. “When did you two start dating?”

Koa smiled. “It was months ago. I got pretty scratched up this one time on a mission. No one had done it to me, I just slipped and fell down a hill. It was raining, so the ground was all slippery and I couldn’t stop. So I came back to the mansion a mess, with cuts all over myself. And a lot of the others at the time were on their own missions, so Plumeria took me to the side and starting helping me clean up. She was quiet. She doesn’t talk too much. But she was so gentle and kind… even though most people are kind of afraid of her. I… was head over heels for her at the beginning.” Koa kept smiling, staring kind of wistfully in the distance. Truth be told, the romance stuff was kind of making Momi a little sick. But Koa seemed really happy to be talking about it. It was adorable seeing Koa light up like this.

“So.. she cleaned me up and I went to bed. I couldn’t figure out a way to talk to her. So me and my dumb self decided to ‘fall’ again. I got myself all dirtied up and scratched up again and went back to Plumeria. She was of course, kind of irritated. But she fixed me right up again without a question.” Koa laughed a little. “Eventually she caught on to what I was doing, and said I should just ask her out ‘cause if I kept at it, I’d be nothin’ but scratches and she wouldn’t keep bandagin’ me up then.” She grinned. “So I asked her to get Tapu Cocoa. But she hates Tapu Cocoa, so we got some malasadas instead. It was an amazing night.. I got to hear her laugh.. She has just the cutest laugh, Momi..” And Koa droned on and on. Momi nodded and smiled, doing her best to keep listening to Koa’s story. 

Finally, as though a gift from the gods, The skull grunts brought over their pokeballs. Momi took Lycanroc and stuffed the ball in her pocket.

“Well, I guess I’m gonna go uh…” She thought for a moment. “I need to go do something, or..” She needed an excuse to get out of this conversation for now. “I forgot to ask Jon how he was doing! See you later!” Momi hurried out of the pokecenter and back to the mansion. She made it just in a nick of time. Rain started to fall once again as she made it in through the door. She checked around a few rooms before finding Jon sitting in a dark room lit by a small TV. Several other people surrounded it, the group playing some sort of video game.

Momi didn’t have much else to do, so she took a seat and watched. One of them offered the controller, but she refused. She’d never really played a video game before and she figured that if she were to give it a shot, she’d rather do it by herself. She’d feel more pressure to be good at it if people were watching her. Jon was too focused on the game to notice that she had come in, which was fine. She didn’t really mind. 

She watched the screen for about ten minutes, before Jon had turned around to grab his drink, and noticed her. 

“Momi! How long have you been sitting there?” He asked, his eyes widened slightly and a welcoming smile forming on his face. Momi couldn’t help but smile herself, and she gave a small wave.

“Not too long. I couldn’t find much else that I felt like doing today.” In all honesty, she could have gone to Plumeria for an assignment.. But it didn’t feel right after her last one. Some part of her was still anxious, even after seeing Guzma tear that guy to shreds.

“Ah… well guess what?” Jon gave his typical wide grin, and Momi gave him a puzzled look before waiting on his answer.

“I confessed to the guy I have a crush on!” He giggled. Momi gave him a smile, although it was a little forced. Was she going to sit through more lovey-dovey stuff? ...Wonderful. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be there for her friends… It just seemed like too common of a topic right now. Perhaps she was overthinking it.

“Congratulations! How did it go?” Momi assumed it had to have gone well, otherwise Jon wouldn’t appear so happy. He set his controller down and turned his body to face hers so they could talk easier.

“I was super nervous at first,” He admitted. “My hands were shaking like crazy and I kept stuttering but he thought it was cute, apparently. I tried usin’ a pick-up line, but let me tell you, that doesn’t work. Well, not for me. I just had to be honest. I just started talking and I wouldn’t stop. Told him how cute I thought he was and that I wanted to get to know him… and we’re gonna go get malasadas later tonight! Isn’t that wonderful?”

“That’s sweet. I’m glad you were able to confess.” Momi ran a hand through her hair. She watched Jon’s mouth open to talk again, and knew she was going to be sitting here listening for a while. He droned on and on about this boy’s features constantly. It was kind of endearing, but at the same time, Momi didn’t want to talk about this anymore. Between Ko and Plumeria and now Jon and this new guy, Momi had spent the entirety of today and a little of the day before faced with this. 

She’d never had a chance to have a boyfriend or girlfriend before. She hadn’t given it much thought, since she had spent most of her childhood rather isolated from any other kids. How was dating supposed to go, anyways? She’d seen romantic movies but they usually involved some clingy man with flowers chasing down a woman at an airport so he could apologize for something. 

She was half listening to Jon as she pondered the idea. If she were to date anyone here, who would she…? She scanned the people in the room… There was a cute girl with high pigtails and beautifully done makeup. Perhaps she could get to know her… Momi’s eyes continued to scan the room. Jon was too caught up with himself to notice. Her eyes fell on the doorway as Guzma entered the room.

Guzma?

No, not Guzma. She couldn’t date Guzma. That would be weird.

The thought was kind of nice, though.


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> college apps am i right
> 
> hey remember how this is a ship fic? finally we get to that for a while

Guzma stood proudly at the doorway, his hands in his jacket pockets and a grin on his face. He always seemed to lean slightly forward. He took a hand from his pocket to run his hand through his curly white hair and adjust his glasses. He took a few steps towards the TV. A few team skull members sat around it, so they shifted and made room for their leader.

Guzma plopped himself down and slid the jacket off of his broad shoulders to reveal the tank top underneath. He grabbed a controller.

“Let’s fucking play!” He grinned. Momi’s teammates seemed rather scared by this display, but it didn’t take too long for them to ease up and begin the game. Momi realized all of a sudden that she had been ignoring Jon… who had never stopped talking. The poor boy was head over heels for this new guy. Jon seemed to finally realize that Momi wasn’t really listening. He gave a small smile and looked over to the TV. 

“Why don’t you go over and watch? I think I’m going to go find something to eat. You should consider playing.” The boy said this with a kind of half-hearted tone. It seemed Momi had hurt his feelings by ignoring him. She felt a pang of guilt, and her mouth hung open slightly as she fought for the words to apologize and somehow explain herself, but Jon didn’t offer her the time. He rose to his feet and headed out of the room. He seemed to linger at the door for a moment, but not long. Momi sat frozen for a moment. Why was she so concerned with herself? All Jon wanted to do was share his feelings. 

There wasn’t any point in mulling over it, either she could go after him to apologize or she could sit here and do nothing. She couldn’t lie, she didn’t really want to go after him and admit that she had gotten caught up watching Guzma. Even if she figured up some lie to tell him, that felt sort of wrong. Maybe it would be better to leave Jon to himself for a bit. She could go apologize to him later. For now… she was going to watch them play. She turned her body towards the TV and watched them play. She didn’t recognize any of the other grunts sitting around, but that didn’t matter. She found her eyes slowly leaving the TV and focusing on Guzma instead.

He was focused, so he was a little more hunched over than usual to bring himself close to the screen. He gripped the controller with more force than was probably necessary, and he seemed to think moving the controller while moving his character would increase his chances of winning. It didn’t. They were playing a racing game, and Guzma had been in last place since the game started. She watched the screen for a moment-- Guzma was getting ahead! He was about to pass a person.. When his car slowly seemed to pull to the right and into an obstacle. His car was flipped and he was thrown right back into last place. Was he throwing the game? He should have seen that coming. There’s no way he didn’t see it.

So he was letting the others win? Or was he just that bad? Momi sat up straight and narrowed her eyes. Guzma seemed to be having more fun laughing and joking with the other players. Momi was convinced he had done that on purpose.

The race concluded with Guzma being the loser. The winner threw his controller down and raised his arms in the air in a cheerful victory while the other two grunts applauded him. Guzma chuckled and gave the winner a high-five. Momi was watching them for a moment, still thinking about Guzma’s defeat, when Guzma turned to look at Momi. He offered her a controller. Momi blinked and opened her mouth to tell him she didn’t want to play, but he cut her off.

“C’mon, It’ll be fun. You’re not scared, are you?” He grinned.

“I am.” Momi said, taking the controller anyways. It couldn’t hurt. Guzma raised his eyebrows at her honesty and shrugged. She moved up to sit closer to the TV, next to the others, and looked down at the controller.

“You look like you have no idea what that is.” Guzma laughed. “You’ve played a video game before, right? No way you haven’t.”

Momi nervously laughed. “Actually…”

“No way.” He repeated. “Alright, Alright.” He scooted closer and held up his controller. He began listing out what each button does, and showed her the proper way to hold it. Momi found it kind of interesting. The way you were supposed to grip the controller gave you access to all buttons-- It was a cool thing. But she was going to have to play without looking at the controller, and she was going to have to remember what buttons did what.

“Don’t be nervous. It’s fine. Let’s just see how you do.” Guzma said. One of the grunts sat out so that Momi could play this time. She watched the screen as the game started. It was split into four sections, and she tried to figure out which one was hers. 

“You’re bottom left.” Guzma said, straightening his back for a moment. She nodded. There was a countdown… which button was the gas? Oh god. She held one button and prayed that was the correct one. It was. 

The race was off to a nice start for everyone else. They sped ahead of Momi and grabbed power ups and dodged things. Momi kept driving straight into the wall. She laughed a little bit, but at the same time it was nerve-wracking. She looked like a total idiot in front of all of them. She took a deep breath and glanced down at her controller before looking back at the TV.

She could feel Guzma glancing at her ever so often. Why was he looking at her instead of the game? That honestly only made her feel worse. What was he thinking? Was he trying to figure out why she was so bad at the game? Wondering how stupid she was?

Guzma’s car ran directly into an obstacle, allowing Momi to pass him. She shifted a little uncomfortably. That was _definitely_ on purpose. No mistake about it. He was trying to let her pass him. She passed him, but she didn’t feel too good about it. She wanted to learn how to play the game, yes, but doing this in front of everyone was really stressful. And him letting her win like that only made her feel like a little kid. She didn’t need Guzma to hold her hand through this. She sped up, and focused more. Momi realized she was paying way too much attention to her character and not the obstacles she was facing around it. She had kept her finger pressed on the gas the entire time which had caused her to run into the walls over and over. She wasn’t controlling the car well enough to make it through turns. 

She lifted her chin and flipped her hair out of her eyes. She left off the gas as they made it around a turn.. And gunned it immediately as she made it out. She passed one of the grunts. Guzma glanced at her, and in the corner of her eye, she noticed him grinning. She grinned as well. She could win.

It felt amazing now that she was actually in the race. She was competing. She knew what she was--

A wall. She ran into a wall. Guzma and the others sped past her and Momi stared with her mouth hanging open. She’d gotten cocky and in the matter of seconds she had made a mistake. This required all of her focus. She grit her teeth and sped up a bit. Guzma was speeding through the race, and it didn’t seem like he had any interest in letting Momi pass him this time. That was okay. Momi didn’t want him to do so. She was going to pass him all on her own.

Or not. She hit another wall, but this time she started laughing. 

“You guys, I can’t believe how awful I am at this.” She giggled. “That’s like the millionth time I’ve run into a wall.” She sped up her car again to recuperate from her mistake.

“It’s okay,” One of the grunts said. “You obviously learn super fast if this is your first time playing. You’re gonna have to get used to video games, ‘cause it’s like half of what we do here.” He chuckled. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve went to bed at 4am because of this, and had a mission at 8 the next time. Plumeria wanted to bash my head in.” He seemed to be comfortable talking about his irresponsibility around Guzma. In fact, Guzma seemed to laugh as well.

“Plumeria always wants to bash someone’s head in.” Guzma chimed in. “We love her anyways.” He then glanced at Momi. “You’re doing fine.”

She smiled. That made her feel nice. It sounded so genuine from him. He seemed to care so much about his team… although she hadn’t liked him trying to let her win, the intentions were good. That was all that really mattered. 

And then Momi remembered that the game was still going.

She turned her head back to the screen and continued playing

The race soon ended with Momi the loser, and the team skull grunt the winner. Guzma turned to look at her and smiled. Momi thought her heart was going to stop. His smile warmed her soul like the sun peeking its way out of dark, stormy clouds. His eyes looked at her with such pride and admiration… her chest welled up with unmistakable emotion that she had no idea what to do with. She felt her hands tremble slightly and her face heat up. All of this? Over a smile?

“That was fun.” Momi managed to speak. Guzma nodded in his agreement.

“Let’s play again, then?” He suggested. The others grinned and agreed. Momi thought for a second. Again? Would she be able to handle the anxiety?

Definitely.

Another game soon began. Momi was quickly picking up on how to win, and had managed to get first place. Guzma had stopped letting anyone pass him, and was on Momi’s tail. She couldn’t let him pass her. She focused a little more, leaning a little closer to the screen and gripping the controller furiously. She found herself swaying left and right with the movement of the car.

Suddenly, she felt an elbow somewhat harshly jab her in the side. She lost focus and her car spun out, allowing Guzma to pass her. The elbow belonged to no other than the man himself, and he seemed rather proud of himself. He brandished a wide grin and winked at her as he sped into first place.

 

“That’s not fair!” Momi rolled her eyes, and instead of protesting any farther, she tried to catch back up. The other two players were currently no contest, and they probably didn’t want to be. Momi waited for the perfect moment to strike. Right as she was on his tail, she jabbed her elbow into his ribs-- not too hard. Just enough to make him lose control of his car… although it spun out and knocked directly into Momi, allowing for the other players to pass them both. Momi laughed at her mistake, dropping her controller.

“I give up with this.” She rolled her eyes. Guzma shook his head.

“You can’t give up! Let’s order some pizza or something.” Guzma said.  
“They don’t deliver out here.” One of the grunts informed him, looking rather confused that Guzma didn’t know that.

“Right.. That means someone is gonna have to go get it.” Guzma looked around. Silence. No one wanted to volunteer. So Guzma sighed, and heaved himself to his feet. 

“I’ll go get it, then.” Guzma stuck his hands in his pockets. Momi felt rather guilty for not volunteering herself, so she stood up.

“No, I’ll go.” She shook her head. 

“Let’s go together.” He suggested that rather quickly, like he had been waiting to say it. The words practiced over and over. Momi blinked a bit of shock, before nodding. 

“Yea, okay..” That sounded nice and terrifying at the same time. Being alone with their kind of hot leader? Cool. Having to act like a normal person around him? Not cool. She could feel herself get nervous. He lead her out of the room and towards the exit of the mansion.

Oh jeez… all that lovey dovey stuff from Jon and Koa was rubbing off on her.

Hot damn did she feel like a hypocrite.


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ayyyyyy!!!!!! Check it out. Poor jon

She didn’t feel too bad about sharing a Charizard with Guzma. He sat behind her with a steady arm wrapped around her protectively. She leaned back into him slightly, smiling a little. It was cold, and being this close to him was nice.

This entire situation was completely illogical, though. Not too long ago had she shunned her close friend for not shutting up about relationships, and here she was flirting with their leader. It wasn’t _quite_ the same thing, but it still felt wrong. And part of her continued to dwell on that guilt, but the rest of her wanted to live in this moment while she could.

It reminded her of when she first snuck out of her home. She had sat on that beach with every worry running through her mind, but she had to make herself focus on the sand and the shells so she could enjoy it. So she made herself focus on Guzma. Or, at least she tried. The thought of the beach reminded her of her parents.

Her heart ached with a terrible pain. She missed her parents. Despite how awful they had been, they were her parents and even after all of this time, she found herself a little homesick. She missed the comfort of her bed at home. Hell, a part of her kind of missed the view from her window. She supposed the most important thing that she missed was the sense of security. Even while she was there, she had some sort of idea about who she was. After everything, Momi wasn’t too sure about what kind of person she was or wanted to be. She had joined a criminal group.. Had stolen pokemon… and cheered Guzma on while he took down a guy. Is this the person a younger Momi would have been proud of? Probably not.. Is this a Momi that the Tapu would be proud of…?

No..

“Hey, are you alright? You kind of froze like a popsicle.” Guzma leaned a little forward, pressing his body against hers slightly. He moved his face to the side, near her shoulder so he could see her face more accurately.

“You look like you’re gonna faint.” He continued. Momi felt like she probably was. The combination of being this close to Guzma, mere hours after she had realized how much she was into him, while also going over all the anxieties running about in her head… It wasn’t the best moment. But Momi did what all people do, and lied.

“I’m fine.” She laughed a little nervously, trying to shake off the feelings she had been stuck in. 

“You don’t seem that way. But I’ll take your word for it.” He shrugged.

It was kind of him not to push any farther. She didn’t really feel like talking about it anyways. A rather awkward silence continued, and Momi fought for something to say to him… Something cute… something witty.

“You’re warm. Like a space heater.” Momi said. Nailed it.

“What?” Guzma laughed, leaning back a bit as he did so. “A space heater? Thanks? I think? You’re pretty cold. Like a popsicle.” He rolled his eyes and leaned forward again.

“Let’s fix that.” He grinned, and placed his chin on her shoulder and resting his cheek against hers. His skin was warm against hers, and Momi found herself leaning into the touch. He wrapped both of his arms around her waist to pull her close. Momi blushed wildly, looking down at his arms for a second. Was she cool with this? Why was he all of a sudden showing affection? They kind of hardly knew each other… What was Guzma’s end game in this? His intentions? She reminded herself to keep breathing, her lungs aching in pain as she had held her breath way too long in the moment. She tried to focus on something else for half a minute while she readjusted her breathing.

She looked down below them. The waves...they still reminded her of home. The cool air whipping in her face brought the smell of salt and again it took her back to the day where she sat on the beach. The sand mixing between her toes and her hands shaking slightly with the fear of being caught. Nothing in her life would be the same if she hadn’t chosen to sneak out. It was amazing that she had managed to get to this point. So many factors had lined up perfectly to arrange for this moment. If she had made a mistake and alerted the Machoke to her presence back in her home, she’d never have made it here.

She should stop dwelling. It wasn’t making her feel any better. She shook her head of these thoughts and noticed that the Charizard was beginning to make its slow descent. Guzma’s arm wrapped around her a little tighter as the ride became a bit more bumpy.

“...Is this okay?” He glanced at her with a raised eyebrow, questioning Momi’s silence. She gave a nod, but offered no other answer. She truly was okay with his closeness, but she could not get herself to speak. This was nerve-wracking. She hadn’t really had any time to process her feelings for Guzma when she realized them, and now they were going to go get pizza together. It wasn’t _really_ that big of a deal, but if Momi wasn’t an over-reacter, she probably wouldn’t be here in the first place.

The Charizard landed with a thump, shaking Momi and Guzma a bit. Guzma slid off of the dragon’s back first and offered a hand to Momi to helpl her down. She accepted, and carefully got off. Like last time, Guzma offered the dragon some berries. It gave a pleased noise and stretched its wings. Guzma had brought them to a small town that Momi of course didn’t recognize. But she spotted a pizza shop not too far away. Guzma raised his arms and stretched.

“Riding on a charizard is kind of annoying, if you ask me. But it’s the quickest way around.” He ran a hand through his messy hair and looked around at the surrounding environment. A few people were walking around, but seeing as though the sun had gone down hours ago, the town wasn’t that active. He gave a small yawn, and took Momi’s hand without question. He began walking towards the pizza shop. 

Momi stared down at their hands in total disbelief. He hadn’t asked her or anything… She’d like to think of it as a romantic gesture, but honestly it made her feel a little unsafe. Would he always act this way around her? Take whatever he wanted? It didn’t feel okay… So she slightly tugged her hand away. And then Guzma let go. He didn’t even really react-- He just let go of her hand and continued with walking. Just like that? Was he indifferent about it? Did he not care?

Momi couldn’t take this back and forth with her train of thought. Was she just paying way too much attention to every little action? She must me. She always overthought everything. And seeing as though how he didn’t protest to her letting go… she kind of _wanted_ to hold his hand again. His reaction made her feel much better about it.. So she took a deep breath…

She lifted her chin, stuck one hand in her pocket…

And took his hand back into her own.

She spotted him grin out of the corner of her eye, and she couldn’t help but grin herself. She was holding hands with the infamous leader of Team Skull-- a feat she wouldn’t have been proud of weeks ago… but now… she felt on top of the world for it. She had proved her worth to someone with so much power, and she felt like she kind of had a chance with him. Was this what she wanted? To pursue something like this?

Momi decided that she wasn’t going to worry about that. She was going to do what felt right, and what made her happy. And in this moment, nothing made her happier than holding his hand.

“You’re cute.” He laughed, and tightened his grip around her hand slightly. She smiled.

“You’re cute.” She repeated after him. 

“No, you.” He shook his head.

“Let’s just get the pizza.” Momi laughed. “What kind of pizza are we getting?”

“I was thinking supreme, but what kind of pizza do you like?” He asked.

She shrugged. “That sounds good to me. I don’t eat pizza too often.” 

“That’ll change, the longer you’re here.” He chuckled. “Pizza’s cheap and most people will eat it.” He opened the door for her. It must be hard procuring meals for each member of Team Skull, in fact, she had seen most members buying food for themselves only. Pizza was kind of a universal food for most people, so she could see why they ate it so much. She stepped inside.

The inside was a lot warmer than the outside. A nice older man stood at the counter. He smiled as soon as the bell rang to alert him to the new customers, but upon seeing who they were… his smile faded almost instantly. Momi felt angry at that. Again, someone took one look at them and assumed they were no good… If only people could understand how amazing Team Skull really was.

“Can we get two large supreme pizzas, some breadsticks, and a 2 liter?” He pointed to the one he wanted. The old man nodded.

“That’ll be a ten minute wait on the pizzas.” The old man told them. Guzma seemed fine with it. 

“We’ll be back in ten.” Guzma said, and lead Momi out with him. He let go of Momi’s hand once outside and stretched his arms.

“What to do for ten minutes..?” He looked around. There wasn’t that much around at all. He reached into his pocket. 

“You wanna formally meet my buddy? You certainly met him at my birthday party, but maybe it’s time for an actual introduction.” He laughed a little. Momi gave a nod, figuring he was talking about the giant, terrifying bug pokemon who had picked her up. He threw the ball, and the giant creature materialized. It looked to the left, then to the right.. And spotted Momi. It charged forward and enveloped her in a creepy, multi-armed hug. She still was not over the whole bug thing. 

It released a shrill chirp of happiness as it hugged her, and Guzma worked on separating the two.

“No, Golisopod! Bad!” He laughed a little, still finding the terrible situation humorous. Momi tried to find the humor in the situation, but honestly the pokemon was too strong. The hug was rather painful. The pokemon finally let go, and Guzma sighed in relief.

“Momi, meet Golisopod.” Momi waved slightly at the beast. 

“Golisopod, meet Momi.” Golisopod made a happy chirp. Momi decided to grab Lycanroc’s ball. She released the dog pokemon, and it happily ran in circles upon seeing Momi. It barked loudly and then looked at Guzma and Golisopod. Lycanroc misunderstood the situation, and prepared for a battle.

Momi laughed a little bit and ran a hand through Lycanroc’s fur. “No, No, we’re not battling.” She sat down on the ground. Lycanroc turned to look at Momi and rubbed his face on hers. Guzma sat down next to her and extended a hand to Lycanroc. The dog sniffed his hand warily before letting Guzma pet him. Guzma grinned and ran his hands through Lycanroc’s fur a little roughly. The dog seemed excited and rolled over to expose its belly. Guzma happily rubbed Lycanroc’s stomach, but Golisopod got jealous. The giant pokemon crashed to the ground and mimicked Golisopod.

Guzma and Momi both started laughing at the same time. It was hilarious to see a giant bug creature act like a dog. Guzma leaned over and rubbed Golisopod’s belly as well.

“How are you liking being in Team Skull so far?” Guzma suddenly asked. Momi blinked, not expecting such a question right now.

“I’m liking it.” She spoke quickly, trying to make her words sound more definite. She recalled how she once had thought of taking them apart inside out, like some sort of hero. That was definitely not happening. She really did love the people she had come to be friends with, but…

“You’re not telling me something.” Guzma leaned back, propped up on his arms. “What’s bothering you about being here?”

She paused, and thought for a moment so she could put her words together. There was no way to avoid telling him that she didn’t like stealing pokemon. She felt icy cold fear emerge in her chest and spread out through each of her veins and into her fingertips, her hands began to shake involuntarily while she began to speak.

“...I’m not.. I mean… uh… I don’t like the stealing pokemon stuff. It feels mean, and wrong. Why would I take someone else’s pokemon? What if someone took mine from me? I’d be pissed…” Momi trailed off a little bit, looking to Guzma’s face for any sign of what his reaction would be like. Was he going to be angry? Was he going to kick her out?

“It’s a dog eat dog world, Momi. If someone takes your pokemon, take it back. It’s these fools faults for not being strong enough to protect themselves.” His face remained rather neutral. Lycanroc sat up and moved to sit closer to Momi.

“I wasn’t strong enough to protect myself. Why did you help me, if it’s a dog eat dog world?” Momi raised an eyebrow.

“Because you’re a Team Skull member. You’re a part of my family. We’re here to back each other up.” Guzma looked at her. “You’re important to us.”

“...But I haven’t done anything useful.” She said.

“You’re not wrong,” Guzma was honest about it. “But I believe in you. Taking pokemon is for the growth of Team Skull. So don’t think about it like a bad thing. You’re taking from the scumbags who get everything handed to them, and giving it to your family. You’re doing it for us.”

The thought of Team Skull being her family made Momi feel… safe. She knew that whatever happened, she could count on them to be at her aid. And she wanted to be at theirs… She would have to get stronger so she could be useful to them. She wanted to make up for Guzma saving her ass that day, and wanted to help everyone who had helped her. She wanted to be a part of the reason Team Skull is so strong.

“That makes me feel a lot better.” Momi nodded. The idea that she was taking away from people who had everything handed to them also made her feel reassured. All these people who grew up with parents who treated them perfectly… why did they deserve to have an easy childhood? Why didn’t she?

Why was the world so unfair..?

Guzma slowly got to his feet and returned Golisopod, and Momi did the same to Lycanroc.

“Our pizza should be ready.” He lead her back inside the small pizza store… but the old man at the counter was speaking to a police man. Momi tensed up and the icy cold feeling in her chest returned in an instant. Had this man seriously called the police on them? She supposed Guzma was pretty notorious, but really? All they wanted was a pizza.

The policeman turned around. Upon seeing Guzma, even he seemed rather afraid.

“Sir, there is a warrant for your arrest. I’m going to need you to come with me.” The policeman spoke, his voice wavering. Guzma looked the man up and down, pulled out his wallet, and set some money on the counter.

“Where’s my pizza?”

Momi almost laughed. He completely ignored the policeman… Momi would never have the guts to do that. The Old man behind the counter shakily handed over the items Guzma had ordered, and Guzma grabbed a few and Momi picked up the rest. The policeman’s eyes widened in surprise as he watched Guzma just nonchalantly pick up his order. He shakily grabbed a pokeball, and spoke again.

“Put down the pizza, and come with me!” Again, his voice wavered and cracked with fear. He was rather young, probably not very experienced.

Guzma performed a balancing act with all of the items he was carrying, and pulled out his pokeball to release Golisopod. Golisopod raised all of its arms and released a threatening hiss to the police officer. Guzma opened the door with his foot and held it for Momi as she exited. Once outside, Momi couldn’t help but laugh.

“He was so terrified!” Momi giggled. Guzma grinned, a little amused at Momi’s excitement.

“People have learned that you don’t mess with me.” He fished out the ride pager from his pocket and called the Charizard from earlier. It hadn’t gone off too far, so it arrived quickly. Golisopod came out of the pizza store after it deemed the officer scared enough, and returned to its pokeball. Carrying all of the pizza and such was difficult as they got on the Charizard. After almost dropping everything, they managed to take off. Momi wasn’t able to lean back into Guzma’s arms now.. But that was okay. Maybe another time.

She was happy to be back on their way to Po Town… she missed the sound of that eternal rain. As they hurried back, Guzma hummed a bit. She wasn’t sure what tune he was humming to, but she focused all of her attention on it for the rest of the ride.

The Charizard landed a little softer than last time, probably being aware of all the items they had to bring with them. Guzma got off, and didn’t offer the Charizard a berry this time. He probably didn’t have any on him. The Charizard looked disappointed and flew off rather angrily. 

They hurried inside to keep the pizza boxes from getting wet, and back into the room where the others were still playing video games. They set all of their stuff down on a small wooden table on the side of the room and the others quickly rushed over to get some pizza. Momi grabbed a slice and a breadstick, and sat down by herself to continue watching the game. Guzma grabbed two slices and sat next to her.

“I’d say that was pretty fun?” He looked to her for her confirmation. She nodded enthusiastically. 

“Let’s go get pizza together sometime.” He grinned. “Maybe something just for the two of us.”

Was he insinuating a date? She just nervously laughed and nodded her head, unsure of any other way to react.

 

A few people played the racing games while Momi and Guzma watched, but after an hour or so they let some people switch in and out. Momi and Guzma started playing again, and Momi had to get used to controlling the car once more. She was still having fun… and both of them engaged in elbow-jabbing shenanigans in order to pass the other.

 

It felt like they had been playing games for an eternity, and Momi would keep playing for an eternity longer if she hadn’t been getting tired. She gave up her controller, but still sat next to Guzma. She yawned a bit, but fought to keep her eyes open.

After a while, they decided to stop playing games. Instead, they put on a movie. Several people were still up and talking. They were having constant conversations about what kind of pokemon they preferred and type advantages. Momi didn’t really care to contribute, and watched the movie. Saying she watched the movie was kind of a longshot. She really just kind of stared at it as time passed by. She was so tired.. She should head back up to her room. But as she was about to stand up, She felt Guzma’s arm wrap around her, and pull her closer. 

“You can lean on me.” He smiled. He seemed to actually be paying attention to the movie. Being this close to him seemed nice… and she was too tired to over think the idea.

She leaned her head on him for a bit, and Guzma readjusted to lean against the couch that was behind them. There were a few people on it, but enough room for Guzma to prop himself up. Momi eventually shifted, her head resting on his chest. He kept an arm around her.

She should be worried.. She shouldn’t be letting herself just be this close to someone she really didn’t know all too well. Not too long ago, Guzma’s presence frightened her. But in one night, she was being all lovey-dovey.

But she felt happy like this, and that’s all that really matters, right?


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading y’all!!!

Momi, unplagued by nightmares throughout the night, woke rather slowly. She sat up and stretched her arms, gently moving Guzma’s arm from around her. The two of them had ended up laying on the floor with Momi’s head resting on Guzma’s chest. The Team Skull leader was still passed out, his glasses having fallen off of his head, and his jacket somewhat slipping off his shoulders a little. She laughed a little at the sight.

Was it really a good idea to get so close to Guzma?

She was having a good time. That’s it.

She carefully stepped around all the other sleeping Team Skull grunts and headed out of the door. The first person to spot her was Koa. The curly haired girl hurried over to Momi with a stern look on her face. She grabbed Momi by the wrist and pulled her up the stairs.

“Koa!” Momi’s eyes widened and she struggled to keep up with the determined girl.

“We gotta talk.”

“Okay, well stop pulling me!” Momi pleaded. Koa did not listen, and kept tugging on Momi until they got into their shared room. Koa closed the door, and Momi backed away a few steps from her. She took a moment to catch her breath from the running and looked Koa in the eyes.

“What’s going on?” Momi asked.

“Well first off, what’s with you acting all cold towards me and Jon yesterday? You seriously upset Jon. The boy came running to me yesterday talking about how you just ignored him. If you don’t want to talk to the boy that’s one thing, but just be honest with him.” Koa stuck her hands in her pockets. “You really hurt his feelings.”

Momi paused for a moment, her chest locking up with guilt. She really didn’t mean to hurt Jon yesterday, but he had been getting on her nerves… Despite however much she may have been bothered, it still didn’t give her the right to be a dick to him. He just wanted someone to talk to. She had totally forgotten about apologizing to him…

“I just got caught up with…” Momi began, and Koa cut her off quickly.

“Guzma. Another thing that we need to talk about.” Koa crossed her arms. Momi’s eyes widened at her stance. Koa seemed actually upset with her… and Momi felt incredibly ashamed. Of what in specifics? Not sure. But whatever she did to incure Koa’s anger… she felt bad for it. 

“You can’t be getting all close and cuddly with our leader like that. It’s a bad idea. What if you two had a fight and he wanted you out? You’d be gone. We’re all a family, but we gotta keep some level of professionality.” Koa said. At this, Momi felt her face turn red. Not with embarrassment… but with anger.

“How are you going to tell me to stay professional while you’re dating Plumeria? Plumeria is like one step below Guzma!” Momi’s voice got a little loud. Koa seemed rather shocked for half a second, but she met Momi’s intensity.

“Plumeria and I have already talked about it, and Plumeria doesn’t have as much power as Guzma! And she doesn’t have half the temper!” Koa hissed. “I’m just worried about you! And it’s not cool that yesterday you were acting all irritated ‘cause Jon was talking about his guy, and then you go off and get all cozy with Guzma. You pretty much ditched me for Jon, and then ditched Jon for Guzma. If you wanted Jon to stop, you shoulda been honest.”

“You’re right.” Momi said. “But I didn’t think anyone would make such a big deal of it. I’ll apologize to Jon, I promise.” Momi nodded. Koa raised an eyebrow as if she didn’t quite believe Momi. Momi’s heart panged with a bit of pain at the notion… Koa straight up didn’t believe her. She really had intentions to go apologize. Momi still felt a bit angry at Koa’s statement about the possible relationship between herself and Guzma.

Momi stuck up her chin.

“You can’t tell me whether or not to date Guzma. Who knows even if he’s actually interested in me like that?” Momi shrugged.

“Oh shut up. Guzma doesn’t show many people that kind of attention. I know he’s interested, the question you should be asking yourself is how long that will last. You haven’t been here nearly as long as I have, so stop acting all big and mighty.” Koa’s eyes narrowed. 

“I’m not acting big and mighty!” Momi protested.

“Just listen to me, and stop with the Guzma thing.” 

Momi paused, trying to take this all in. Koa was trying to stop her and Guzma from being together, and perhaps rationally she should consider what Koa said… However…

Momi had spent a long time in her life being unhappy. She hadn’t experienced things other people experienced. And Momi was an adult now, and she was on her own. Koa couldn’t tell her how to live. If Guzma was a bad idea, well then Momi would have to find out for herself… She didn’t need Koa here to hold her hand through it. 

“I’ll take that into consideration.” Momi opted for that rather than completely saying no, in order to appease Koa if even a little bit. She didn’t want to sit here and argue for hours, so maybe if she presented it as a compromise, this could be over…

Koa eyed Momi angrily, and gave a nod. The curly haired girl said nothing and left the room, leaving Momi standing awkwardly by herself. Koa slammed the door loudly and stomped off. Momi took a deep breath, and noticed that her hands were shaking just a little bit. Why did Koa care so much about what Momi did with Guzma? Those moments she shared with Guzma made her happy… was it too much for Momi to ask just to be happy?

Momi felt filled with rage, her hands forming fists and her expression a scowl. She opened the door fiercely and rushed out-- only to bump into the man in question himself. Guzma. She looked up at him and all the anger she felt melted away, and was replaced with anxiety and embarrassment. She looked up at him, and upon seeing her rather red face, he looked a little concerned.

“What was the door slamming all about?” He raised an eyebrow.

Momi didn’t really think about it before hugging him tightly. She rested her head on his chest. He seemed to stay still for a moment before hugging her back. Since he wasn’t getting an answer, he spoke again.

“I wanted you to come somewhere with me and a few others today. A business kind of thing. I need you there in case something goes wrong. I know your Lycanroc is pretty strong.” Momi took that as a compliment, and nodded. She let go of him and looked back up at him.

“When do we leave?” She asked.

“Now.”


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s ya boiii

This time, Momi had used her own ride pager. Guzma and a few others were on their own Charizards as well, and they were all heading to Malie City. She’d never been to the gardens there, and she was rather excited to head that way. But Guzma had said that it was going to be some kind of business thing and Momi had no idea what he meant by that. Business? What kind of business would they be up to other than some theft?

She didn’t really care to sit and think about it anymore, she was going to find out soon. Riding Charizard on her own was kind of fun. She enjoyed the closeness she experienced with Guzma, but this was a lot more freeing. It made her feel strong and independent to fly over a giant ocean on the back of a dragon. She assumed it made everyone else feel that way as well-- or at least, she hoped so.

Once they landed in Malie Garden, Momi was absolutely enthralled in the different flowers, plants and trees that covered the garden. It was gorgeous. She could sit here for hours with a book… maybe some tapu cocoa… anything. She just wanted to stay here forever.

She was broken from her appreciation of the garden when Guzma’s voice cut in. 

“Come on, Momi.”

Momi quickly got off of the Charizard and fed it a berry Guzma had loaned her earlier. She walked over to Guzma and the other Skull members. They began walking through the garden.. Momi sadly had to tear her eyes away from all the beautiful flora in order to follow the others. Maybe she could come back here one day with Guzma.. That would be fun.

They crossed a small wooden bridge that went over a beautiful stream. She peered down into the water and spotted a few fish pokemon that she didn’t recognize. How much work and love must have gone into this.

A tall blond woman dressed in completely white stood with a few others behind her. The entire ensemble was dressed in white clothes as well. She looked at Guzma and smiled a little bit. Her smile reminded Momi of a fox. The edges were turned up slightly in a way that conveyed a mischievous feeling. She didn’t trust this woman immediately.

“Guzma, dear. It’s wonderful to see you.” The woman smiled. Guzma gave a grin as well.

“Good to see you, Lusamine.” Guzma spoke. The two walked off together, leaving both the Team Skull and the other underlings all by themselves. Momi felt a little awkward just standing there as support as Guzma and ‘Lusamine’ spoke about what she assumed was ‘business.’ She still had no idea what that meant.

Everyone else seemed to feel just as uncomfortable and awkward as Momi, so that was reassuring. The Team Skull members moved over to a bench, and the majority of them sat down. Momi took a seat by the stream. She dangled her legs over the edge and looked down at the water. The sound of the stream running over rocks gave her a similar feeling to the waves. It was a soothing noise. She closed her eyes and focused on it.

Water always flowed constantly. It gave no thought about how it should flow, which way it should be and whether not to settle or continue to run. It just existed. It flowed without thought and almost in a confident manner. She wanted to be like this stream. She didn’t want to think so hard about every single action she made. It seemed to her that most others didn’t stress about every single possibility and option to take… others just enjoyed life, simply. Momi was envious of that. 

It felt like hours had passed when Guzma and Lusamine returned. They exchanged a few more words before Lusamine left the garden. It wasn’t too long after she and her group left that Momi could spot a helicopter in the distance. In the meantime, Team Skull was taking a moment to check out the plants and such.

The citizens around were getting kind of uncomfortable… but none of the grunts seemed to care. Guzma walked over and sat down next to Momi, and took her hand. 

“Do you like the garden?” He asked. “I’ve always thought this place was pretty cool.” Momi nodded and looked back down at the water. She squeezed his hand a little, and he returned the gesture. He looked down at the water with her.

“You’re always looking at water. Every time we’ve been on the charizards, you stare down at the waves like they’re talking to you or something.” Guzma observed. Momi laughed a little nervously.

“I guess you’re right.” She smiled, and leaned on him slightly.

“Do you wanna walk around the garden with me?”

Momi nodded. She got to her feet, still holding his hand as she did so. Guzma got up as well, and they crossed the bridge again so they could start at the beginning of the garden. The path was lined with stone. Each stone had been carefully placed by someone who cared about the garden… It was inspiring that people could organize such beautiful things. The garden was like a music composition. Every piece, Every flower, plant, bridge, stone, and tree came together at the same time, working together to create something truly extravagant. 

She got lost in her thoughts, and it appeared Guzma had done the same. They stopped from time to time to closely examine certain flowers. There were flowers of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Some had spots, stripes, any design. They were from different kinds of regions, and Momi knew a few of their names from her studies in college. Although she hadn’t had much experience with flowers, she had taken a class on them. 

Eventually, they headed back to the bridge to meet back up with the others. The other Team Skull members were standing at the bridge, talking to two people. One of the two was a guy around Guzma’s age. His hair was tied back in a bun, and he wore a white hat. Beside him was a young kid who had a strange bracelet looking thing on his arm. He wore a blue and white striped shirt, capri shorts, and some sneakers. Looked like just any kid. But upon seeing the two, Guzma seemed to become furious. He waited for a moment and listened to the conversation that was going on between the grunts and those two. Momi couldn’t really hear them well… She heard a little bit about a pokemon league. He stuck his hands in his pockets and ditched Momi to head for the bridge.The Skull members moved aside to let Guzma through, and Momi followed behind… then kind of moved to the side. She looked kind of important standing close to him, and she just kind of wanted to give the impression that she was just any other member.

Not that she was assuming she was more than that… It wasn’t the time to think about that.

“Well, Well, Well… Look what we have here.” Guzma chuckled. “Professor Kukui. You’re as arrogant as ever..” He paused and grinned devilishly. This was not one of those smiles that warmed Momi’s heart and made her feel safe. This was a smile of chaos, mischievousness, and absolute hatred.

“The hated boss who beats you down, and beats you down, and never lets up… Yeah… Big bad Guzma is here!” His grin widened, but the professor didn’t seem intimidated. Guzma got louder. He was really going off. It was like he forgot the rest of his team was there; he was so intent on making the situation at hand worse...

“Greetings, cowering public! We have an exciting bout for you tonight! In the opposing corner, the Pokemon professor Kukui! And in _this_ corner, the boss of Team Skull and the hardest guy around, Guzma!” He sounded extremely proud of himself… but his speech reminded of him of a peacock. False confidence. Like maybe if he could present himself as confident, he’d begin to believe himself like he was confident.

Kind of like Momi kicking her chin up and putting a hand on her hip.. Like Gladion..

“Here we are, Kukui… fellow rejects who never could become captains.” Guzma went on. Guzma had wanted to be a captain? He certainly was strong enough.. What happened?

“We’ve got all these moldy old traditions in Alola- the kahunas, the captains.. It’s about time we cut out all that silly garbage and make something new for ourselves. Trust me, I get that. Don’t get me wrong Kukui, we don’t need a league.” So they had been talking about a league… Guzma must have heard a bit more about their conversation than Momi had been able to.

“After all, everyone already knows who the strongest trainer is on these islands!” Guzma continued. Momi had the sneaking suspicion he was talking about himself. How proud could Guzma get? Again, it sounded like he was trying to assure himself more than he was trying to assure anyone else.

“Speak for yourself, Guzma.” Kukui had remained quiet the entire time, but now he spoke up with a confident voice.

“It’s not like I couldn’t become a captain. I chose not to. I had other dreams, see? I wanted to figure out which moves would be strong enough to beat old Hala… and I finally found what I was looking for.” Kukui had turned and walked away from Guzma, but Guzma stayed still in his spot, one grunt on his left and one on his right. 

“The strongest moves you can use are the ones a trainer and their Pokemon choose together… in the heat of the moment, when it really counts. That’s when I knew I had to make a Pokemon League, yeah, to give everybody a chance to be pushed to the limit with their team and find that perfect move!” Kukui seemed rather passionate, although his voice did not rise as much as Guzma’s. He was much more composed, and put together. Although Momi found herself burning with a hatred for him. 

“Let’s see it Guzma! Show me your moves and prove you aren’t just all talk! _If you really can, that is…”_ That pissed Guzma off more than anything else Kukui had said. Guzma’s fists clenched and Momi noticed him clench his teeth. Kukui turned to the kid standing next to him.

“Right, Sun? Don’t you agree?” Kukui smiled and the little kid, and the kid gave a smile and nodded his agreement. Stupid kid. Stay out of this.

“So you’re one of the kids on his island challenge, huh? You don’t look like Hala’s grandson.” Guzma raised an eyebrow at the child. The kid looked a little intimidated, grasping a pokeball in his hand tightly, ready to throw at any second. Guzma found this amusing, and Momi noticed a chuckle from the Team Skull Leader.

“This is Sun. He just moved to Alola. Discovery! New experiences! Adventure! He’s loving every minute of it.” Kukui smiled widely and looked down at Sun. Sun gave a wide smile as well to his professor, and nodded.

“Sun and his Incineroar can unleash some real powerful moves.” Kukui said. “So, Guzma, if you think that you’re the strongest trainer on these Islands, why don’t you battle him?” Kukui was taking advantage of that pride and baiting Guzma into a battle. Rude. If only Guzma realized this and stopped letting Kukui control the situation.

“Tch! This move fanatic is getting me all riled up!” He laughed loudly. He then looked the kid up and down, and focused on the strange bracelet he was wearing.

“So.” Guzma looked at Sun. “You’ve got a Z-Ring, huh, kid? Why do you even bother with the island challenge? What’s the point of it?”

“...It’ll make me strong.” Sun answered.

“No it won’t, you dumb kid!” Guzma spat his words angrily, his fists clenched and his eyes burned with fire. Momi felt a little scared just being a part of the situation. If Guzma yelling at her for waking him up was bad, she never wanted to be on this side of an argument with him… 

“Watch closely, Kukui. Someday I’m gonna _destroy_ you. But first, I’ll destroy everything you care about!” 

Guzma raised his chin, laughed loudly and crossed his arms while staring down Kukui and Sun.

“Wanna see what destruction looks like? Here it is in human form-- It’s your boy Guzma!”

Guzma sent out Golisopod immediately, and Sun sent out a giant Incineroar. The battle began without a count or a moment’s notice. Golisopod and Incineroar began a hideous battle. When Koa and Momi battled, it felt like a synchronized dance, but this just felt like a mess. Two giant creatures throwing each other around and trying to destroy each other. The violence was more on Golisopod’s side than Sun’s, but Incineroar matched Golisopod’s intensity.

There was not a moment’s notice before each attack. Incineroar’s flames grew hotter and bigger until they even reached the bystanders. Momi stepped back a bit, the heat stinging the skin of her face. The other Team Skull members did the same, also experiencing the uncomfortable change in temperature. Momi had only looked away for a moment when Golisopod had fallen to the ground. Incineroar stood proudly over the crushed pokemon and kept its wide grin. Sun cheered it on from behind, giving his pokemon plenty of thanks for winning the battle.

Momi could only see the side of Guzma’s face from the place she stood, but that was definitely enough to see the hideous rage that had enveloped him. A shaky hand returned Golisopod to its pokeball, and released an Ariados.

Momi noticed that she had never met any of Guzma’s other pokemon… but she wasn’t going to meet these for long. In only a minute, Incineroar had defeated Ariados. Guzma took a few steps back and staggered. He had gone pale. He quickly released Ariados, and his face switched expressions. He turned to anger, clenched his fists, and stood up completely straight. He looked down on Sun, who actually seemed to be shaken slightly at Guzma’s change in demeanor. Kukui began to get on the defensive, taking a step forward in front of Sun.

“This is _not_ over.” Guzma spat, and turned. He walked past Momi and the other grunts, and each of them in turn followed in behind him. Momi was just as scared as Sun had seemed. Guzma had looked crushed for a moment, she’d never seen the man look so upset. It was surprising that he was able to switch his reaction so quickly… But he must be hurting inside.

Once far enough away from Kukui and Sun, Guzma pulled out his ride pager. Once Charizard arrived, he offered Momi his hand. He wanted her to come with him? She had no problem with that.

Once on the Charizard, Guzma wrapped his arms around her and held on tight as the pokemon took off into the air. 

It was cold high up in the sky, but it didn’t bother Momi. She held on tightly to the Team Skull leader, who rested his chin on her shoulder and pressed the side of his face against hers.. She heard a small sound, an unmistakable one.

Guzma was crying?


	24. Chapter 24

Momi took a long deep breath and filled herself with the confidence she needed. She held the breath for just a moment before breathing out and clenching her fists for a moment. Not too far away, Momi could spot it. She didn’t want to go inside, didn’t want to speak to anyone, she didn’t even want to be seen. She just felt like she _had_ to come here.

Her home.

Her parent’s house was right here. She had spent all night thinking about coming to visit. It was killing her, wondering what her parents were up to and even if they missed her at all. She needed to know if they were looking for her. She had checked the local news stations and newspapers to see if they had even put out an ad for her, but nothing. Did they care at all? She supposed she should be glad that no one was searching for her, but something about that felt empty. 

She took a few steps towards the house and her heart began beating so hard she feared it might pop right out of her chest. She was sure this was what she wanted, but she was terrified of them seeing her and persuading her to stay. She’d be giving up the life of being with Team Skull, giving up the chance at being with Guzma, giving up everything so far just to go back to sitting in that lonely bedroom and watching wistfully out a window. That wasn’t what she wanted. She’d had so much fun with Team Skull. Playing video games with everybody that one night was like a dream for her. Falling asleep next to Guzma was like a gift from heaven, even though it had caused trouble between herself and Koa.

She still had forgotten to apologize to Jon.

She wished she had a pen so she could write it on her hand or something. She’d have to worry about it later. Her legs carried her closer to the house almost unwillingly. Part of her knew this was important and wanted to do it, but the other part of her wanted to turn around and leave. She could go to the business district and do some shopping! Maybe she could buy something nice for Koa. Yea, that sounded great… 

She almost turned around, but steeled herself. She forced herself to make her way up to the window, and peered inside. It was dark, none of the lights were on.. And everything seemed off. It was all… exactly the way it had been left. Was anyone in the house? She turned her head to the side and stared at the door. It wouldn’t hurt to check things out.. No one was here, anyways.

She walked over to the door, feeling relieved knowing that her parents were not around. She twisted the knob, and thankfully, it was unlocked. The furniture inside was all covered in a thin layer of dust. She walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. She was met with an awful smell, and a few roaches scattered out from beneath it. All the food inside had become rotten… She slammed the door shut and coughed a bit, holding a hand over her nose. It didn’t do much to get rid of the smell…

Where had her parents gone? They had completely disappeared from the house. Momi took one last look at the kitchen before making her way upstairs. The steps creaked under her feet and cockroaches scattered as she came. She made it up to the upstairs hallway, and slowly pushed open the door to her room.

She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but there wasn’t much to see. It was exactly the way she remembered it, and the window was left open. Her parents obviously hadn’t gone on some giant search for their daughter, so what happened to them? Momi sat on the edge of her bed and examined her old room. The laptop was still sitting there on her desk. On the bright side of this situation, Momi could grab some of the things she missed. She’d take the laptop with her. She knew her mom had put a ton of software on it to watch Momi’s activity, so maybe she could find someone who knew how to get all of that off. Momi wasn’t the best with technology.

She sat there for probably too long, just looking around. She grabbed a bag from her closet and began shoving clothes and other miscellaneous items she wanted to have. She crammed the laptop in with her clothes, and looked out the window. She never could see all that much from this window, just some trees and a small building in the distance. But once, this had been Momi’s entire world. It was strange now to think how enamored she had been with it, when now it seemed so boring. She was glad she became a part of team skull. She didn’t feel weak and useless anymore.

Momi, after seeing a spider, decided it was time to leave and headed downstairs. What use was there in sitting around the house anyways? She had a better idea.

She headed down to the shore, and slipped off her shoes. She set her bag down next to them, and took her first step into the sand again. She still loved the feeling of sand between her toes. That hadn’t changed. She sat down in the sand and ran her fingers through it and watched it fall gently from her hand. She looked up at a nearby tree and spotted a Toucannon watching her. She waved to the pokemon.

She pulled out her pokeball, and released Lycanroc. The happy dog pokemon bounced around in the sand and barked a few times, scaring the Toucannon off. Momi giggled a little bit as Lycanroc rolled around in this sand. He pranced around in the water, getting himself all dirty. Momi didn’t mind, she could give him a bath later. She should let him enjoy it.

She closed her eyes and leaned back onto a large rock. She focused on the same sound she had loved so much before. The waves crashed against rocks and foam seeped up onto the shore. She could hear bird pokemon making their chirps and cries in the distance.

But… it wasn’t as comforting and amazing as the first time. Listening to the water was fine and all, but it didn’t have the same effect that it used to have. In fact.. It made her miss the rain of Po town. She slowly pushed herself to her feet, wishing to return home.

Her new home.

But she was interrupted by a flash of lightning. She cried out in surprise and fell backwards, her head spinning slightly with the shock. She crashed into the sand, shutting her eyes tightly to avoid it getting in her eyes. She heard Lycanroc pound towards her, and felt him guarding her body there. She forced her eyes open and recognized the creature before her immediately. The same pokemon who had bestowed upon her Rockruff. 

Before her stood Tapu Koko, who’s once tranquil and understanding eyes had turned to those of anger and disappointment. Momi’s heart felt like it was going to stop, and her hands shook. She didn’t know how to react. She got back to her feet, and examined Tapu Koko again. The Tapu had taken an offensive stance, and Lycanroc had noticed. The dog pokemon lined itself up for a battle. Was she really going to fight a Tapu?

A giant bolt of lightning gave her her answer.

Lycanroc charged forward to use bite, but was knocked away with more lightning. This wasn’t going to work, Tapu Koko had the extreme advantage. But Momi thought the Tapu cared for her? The Tapu had protected her before, and so had another on another island. Why was he attacking her? What had she done to it?

Momi grit her teeth, and cheered Lycanroc on. She gave out her commands without thinking about it, and didn’t flinch this time when Lycanroc fell. He got back up, and she began cheering again. She felt in total sync with him. But it wasn’t enough, the type advantage and experience that Tapu Koko had came out on top. Lycanroc was thrown into the sand whining for help. Momi hurried over to her pokemon and cradled it in her arms. She turned to glare at Tapu Koko.

“Why?” She yelled at it. It just stood there and looked at her for a moment, before coming closer. Momi steeled herself to be hit with electricity. She was completely defenseless now… her eyes closed tightly.

She felt a slight tugging on her neck, and snapped open her eyes. The Tapu had grabbed her Skull necklace, and was pulling it. Before she had the time to do anything, the chain broke and the necklace fell to the sand. The Tapu looked back in Momi’s eyes, showing more compassion…

But Momi didn’t want it. She shoved the Tapu away.

“Get out of here! Leave me alone!” She screamed. Tapu Koko wanted her to leave Team Skull, huh? To hell with it. She wasn’t quitting the only thing that was making her happy. Why didn’t he want her to be happy? He didn’t help her when she needed it, when she was younger, why did the Tapu think it was okay to get involved in her life _now?_ She wasn’t going to listen to this stupid thing. The Tapu seemed a little shocked at her voice, and it’s expression turned to that of anger.

“Go away!” Momi screamed at the top of her lungs, cradling her Lycanroc close. The Tapu took one last look at her, before walking away. Momi didn’t even watch it leave, turning to look at Lycanroc. The poor thing was scratched and bruised, but it still managed to try and make her feel better. He licked her hand and barked a little bit. Momi ran her hands through his fur…

“It’s gonna be okay..” Momi spoke quietly. There was one thing Momi knew right now.

Tapu Koko did not know what was best for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Momi: First of all, Tapu koko


	25. Chapter 25

After a stop to the pokemon center, Momi was taking a walk through the route where she had first met Gladion. Well, the only time she had met Gladion. She wondered if they’d ever cross paths again… He had ties to Team Skull, but so far she had not heard much about him or even seen him. She wanted to thank him again for stepping in to help her, but she wasn’t getting the chance. 

Momi felt so angry. She didn’t want to see the Tapu ever again. Why was this world so messed up? Why was it so unfair? Guzma was right. It was her turn to take from others. The world had taken so much from her. It never gave her the childhood she deserved, the parents she deserved, or the friends she deserved. She had to fight for everything she had, and by god, she was going to. No more worrying, no more carefulness, Momi was going to take what she wanted. She held onto Lycanroc’s ball tightly in her hand, and searched the route carefully.

This world had chewed Momi and spat her out into a mess. It was everyone else’s fault for getting in her way at this point. She was going to be something great for Team Skull, Momi decided. She was going to be useful, she was going to be important, and she was going to be loved by them. She was going to be loved by Guzma, she hoped. 

Momi was determined to get what she wanted, even if it meant this.

A young boy stood on the route with his white vulpix. She quickly walked towards him. He had his back turned, and didn’t notice her as he searched through the tall grass for pokemon. She let out Lycanroc, who saw Momi’s demeanor and prepared for a battle.

“Little kid.” Momi spoke up. The boy whipped around to look at her, and smiled for a moment before realizing who she was. Momi stuck a hand on her hip and lifted her chin, her eyes glaring down at the young child with a ferocious intensity.

“Hand over that pokemon if you don’t want to get hurt.” Momi’s voice sounded different. She’d never heard it like this before, and she wasn’t sure why. Either way, she liked it. The child looked ready to cry almost immediately, pulling his vulpix into his arms.

“No, please don’t take her, my dad got her for me! I’ll give you my money!” The boy pleaded. Momi laughed a little bit. He was so terrified. She hadn’t even done anything and he was already shaking. It must feel awful to be this helpless. Momi knew that feeling, but it wasn’t her turn to feel like that anymore. She should feel guilty, ashamed, upset, or anything like that… but the fact of the matter was that she didn’t. She was enjoying scaring the hell out of this child. She didn’t want his money, and to be honest, she didn’t care that much about the vulpix. But she was going to take it for the glory of Team Skull.

“Did I say, ‘hand me your money’? No, I said hand over that pokemon. Now you better do it, before I get mad.” At Momi’s words, the vulpix leapt out of the boy’s hands and got into an offensive stance. How funny, the poor thing thought it could stand up to Lycanroc.

“Lycanroc, use bite.” Momi spoke, and the pokemon obeyed. It leapt towards the Vulpix and left it with a nasty wound. The boy yelled out in fear for his Vulpix, tears streaming down his face.

“No.. no.. don’t hurt her! Take her! Go!” The boy fell to his knees. Momi held out her hand.

“Pokeball.”

The boy fished around in his pocket and pulled out the pokeball, handing it over with his head hanging low and tears dripping down his face and onto the ground. Momi returned the wounded vulpix to its ball and stuck the ball in her pocket. Lycanroc sat and looked at the crying boy, and then back at Momi. He whined.

“What?” Momi hissed. 

Lycanroc didn’t make another noise, and Momi walked away from the child. She pulled out her ride pager, and began her way back to Po Town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Momi is wilding out yall


End file.
